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LIBRARY  OF   THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Di'vmon....2d>3i'^-'^^  3 


Section.-i' 


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^M 


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Na^IJ 


THE 


JUL  n  ^1924 


BIRTH  OF  JESUS. 


Rev.  henry  A.  MILES,  D.  D. 

AUTHOR    OF     "  ORIGIN    AND     TRANSMISSION     OF    THE     GOSPELS,"    "  TRACES     OP 
PICTURE-WRITING   IN    THE  BIBLE." 


"  Beware  lest  any  man  spoil  you  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit,  after 
the  tradition  of  men,  after  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  and  not  after  Christ." 
St.  Paul  to  the  Colossians  ii.  8 


BOSTON: 
LOCKWOOD,  BROOKS,  AND  COMPANY. 

381  Washington  Street. 

1878. 


Copyright,  1877, 
Br  LOCKWOOD,  BROOKS,  &  CO. 


RIVERSIDE   PRESS,   CAMBRIDGE: 

JTEREOTTPED     AND     PRINTED     BY 

H.  0.  HOUGHTON  AND   COMPANr. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I.  Introduction 5 

II.  The  Problem 19 

III.  The  Probable  Facts    ....  34 

IV.  The  Shepherds  and  the  Magi       .        .  55 
V.  After  Theories    .....  72 

VI.  The  Fight 95 

VII.  The  Fathers           ...                 .  125 

VIII.  Patristic  Reasoning        .         .         .         .139 

IX.  The  Apostles'  Creed  ....  154 

X.  Mariolatrt 166 

XL  Conclusion 194 


THE  BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 


CHAPTER  I.      . 

INTRODUCTION. 

TT  is  tlie  object  of  tliis  book  to  examine  those 
parts  of  the  gospel  narratives  which  relate 
to  the  birth  of  Jesus,  in  order  to  understand,  if 
possible,  what  they  intended  to  record. 

A  few  words  may  explain  the  motives  tliat 
lead  to  this  investigation,  and  the  spirit  in  which 
it  is  conducted. 

If  there  be  in  the  English  language  a  mono- 
graph on  this  subject,  it  is  not  known  to  the 
writer  of  this  book.  Various  commentaries  on 
the  Gospels  offer  brief  explanations  ;  but,  per- 
haps, no  critical  reader  has  looked  into  them 
without  disappointment.  To  discuss  this  point 
fully  in  such  works  would  require  dispropor- 
tionate space,  and  it  is  generally  dismissed  in  a 
few  words. 


6  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

The  inquirer  may  next  turn  to  Treatises  on  the 
Evidences  of  Christianity.  In  modern  works  of 
this  kind  the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus  is  fre- 
quently not  even  alluded  to.  Scholars  know 
what  a  prominent  place  this  point  held  a  few 
hundred  years  ago.  The  recent  silence  betrays 
doubts,  and  still  further  baffles  the  inquirer. 

He  finds  a  like  silence  on  this  subject  in 
modern  creeds.  The  ninth  chapter  of  this  book 
will  describe  the  steps  of  the  formation,  in  the 
fourth  century,  of  what  is  commonly  called  The 
ApoHtles'  Creed.  Subsequent  creeds  often  fol- 
lowed the  style  of  that  symbol  of  faith.  But  a 
marked  change  in  their  contents  is  now  seen  in 
nearly  all  Protestant  creeds.  The  old  clauses 
relating  to  the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus  are 
now  omitted.  The  Christian  consciousness  of 
our  age  recognizes  the  difficulties  and  doubts 
connected  with  this  subject,  and  makes  conces- 
sion to  them.  With  good  sense  and  propriety 
creeds  are  now  usually  limited  to  the  expression, 
in  some  form,  of  a  belief  that  Jesus  was  a  divine 
manifestation  in  the  flesh.  Details  are  left  to 
individual  judgments,  which,  if  they  have  ever 
carefully  considered  this  subject,  have  doubtless 
reached  diverse  conclusions. 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

Two  opposite  poles  of  thouglit  are  sufficiently 
obvious.  On  the  one  hand  is  the  lately  pro- 
claimed, but  long  believed,  dogma  of  the  "  Im- 
maculate Concei)tion,"  which  affirms  that  the 
Virgin  Mary  gave  birth  to  God  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  without  human  intervention. 
On  the  other  hand,  to  many  minds  there  seems 
mingled  with  the  records  of  the  birth  of  Jesus 
such  a  mass  of  incredible  interpretations  that  it 
has  none  of  the  aspects  of  a  real  event.  The 
whole  history  is  pushed  aside  with  much  the 
same  feeling  as  is  the  fable  of  the  birth  of  Mi- 
nerva from  the  brain  of  Jupiter. 

Between  these  extremes  the  minds  of  thoujxht- 
ful  teachers  of  religion  often  waver.  Once  in 
each  year  they  read  from  the  sacred  desk  the 
stories  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  and  can  feel,  as 
they  think,  a  sincere  faith  in  them.  They  are 
sustained  by  the  hallowed  memories  that  cluster 
around  that  season  in  which  Jesus  "  came  to 
visit  us  in  great  humility,"  and  which,  amid  all 
the  kindly  feelings  and  beautiful  customs  of 
Christmas,  draw  every  one  into  a  believing  mood. 
But  even  then,  as  we  suppose,  most  ministers 
would  prefer  not  to  be  questioned  closely  as  to 
what  the  traditions  relating  to  the  first  Christmas 
really  mean. 


8  THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

We  know  that  tliey  would  generally  affirm 
that  they  believe  exactly  what  the  record  says. 
But  what  the  record  says  is  still  an  open  ques- 
tion ;  and  if  tliey  reply  that  they  take  it  in  its 
obvious  and  literal  sense,  we  suspect  that  few 
believe  this  with  the  same  assured  faith  with 
which  they  believe  other  things. 

Propositions  of  which  we  say  that  we  believe 
them  all  equally,  may  have  a  very  different  hold 
upon  the  mind.  There  are  other  witnesses  in 
the  case  than  our  affirmations.  Probably  no 
one  reads  ordinarily  the  story  of  the  birth  of 
Jesus  in  the  same  tone  of  voice  with  which  he 
reads  the  Beatitudes.  It  seems  impossible  that 
these  chapters  should  stand  alike  in  our  spir- 
itual conviction.  The  preacher  knows  there  are 
thoughtful  and  devout  men  among  his  hearers 
who  look  upon  the  account  of  that  birth  with 
bewildered  and  suspended  minds.  He  would 
be  glad  to  come  into  a  truer  relation  to  them  ; 
and  they  would  be  glad  to  see  this  subject  in 
lights  which  would  permit  an  untroubled  belief. 

Between  a  literal  acceptance  of  the  stories  con- 
nected with  our  Lord's  birth,  and  a  rejection  of 
them  all  as  fables,  critical  litei'ature  has  not  yet 
furnished  an  accredited  middle  ground.     Happily 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

we  are  far  removed  from  the  ribald  skepticism  of 
the  Deistical  writers  of  the  last  century.  Noth- 
ing is  more  reassuring  than  the  freedom  from 
sneering  assaults  from  unbelievers,  and  the  manly 
confidence  in  the  truth  among  the  friends  of  a 
sound  Biblical  criticism.  Even  those  who  shrink 
from  a  dej)arture  from  traditional  interpretations 
have  little  of  the  feeling  of  the  Buddhist,  who, 
regarding  the  destruction  of  any  life  as  a  sin, 
and  seein*g  millions  of  animalculse  in  a  drop  of 
water,  at  once  destroyed  the  microscope  that 
had  made  the  unwelcome  revelation. 

Should  a  visitor  from  some  other  planet  see 
in  Roman  Catholic  countries  the  infant  Jesus  in 
his  mother's  arms,  painted  in  millions  of  pictures, 
in  churches,  and  on  shrines  and  altars,  and  should 
he  observe  that  prayers  are  offered  to  these  a 
thousand  fold  more  frequently  than  to  any  one 
else,  would  he  not  naturally  conclude  that  the 
Christian's  God  is  an  infant,  and  that  Christian 
adoration  consists  in  the  worship  of  a  child  ? 

How  great  would  be  his  astonishment  if  he 
should  contrast  all  this  with  the  worship  enjoined 
by  Jesus,  and  with  the  prayers  that  have  come 
down  to  us  from  the  first  century  of  the  church. 

It  might  be  a  long  time  before  he  could  under- 


10  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

stand  from  what  tone  of  mind  arose  this  ascrip- 
tion of  the  godhead  to  a  child.  But  his  studies 
in  history  would  at  length  suggest  the  true  ex- 
planation. He  would  see  that  it  was  the  influ- 
ence of  pagan  literature  which  first  invested  that 
child  with  supernatural  associations. 

In  the  heathen  mythologies  it  was  believed 
that  the  gods  often  took  human  form.  When 
in  the  fourth  century  a  thin  Christian  varnish 
was  given  to  the  ancient  paganism,  parallelisms 
were  eagerly  sought  between  Jupiter  and  his 
offspring,  and  Jehovah  and  the  Son  of  God.  The 
life  of  Jesus  was  then  written,  once  in  Greek  by 
lines  taken  entirely  from  Homer,  and  once  in 
Latin  by  lines  taken  entirely  from  Virgil.  These 
"  Centons,"  as  they  were  called,  were  famous 
books  in  their  day.  They  are  here  referred  to 
oidy  as  one  token  among  numberless  otliers  of 
the  drift  of  thought  in  the  epoch  when  they  ap- 
peared. That  epoch  originated  the  worship  of  a 
child,  and  made  that  child  God. 

At  the  Protestant  Reformation  the  adoration 
of  an  infant  was  abandoned  by  the  Reformers ; 
but  the  theology  on  which  that  adoration  rested 
was  retained.  This  theology  teaches  that  this 
infant,  even  before  his  birth,  was  the  Almighty 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

God.  "  God  of  God  "  was  laid  in  the  manger  of 
Bethlehem,  and  was  carried  in  his  mother's  arms. 
Some  think  the  Roman  Catholic  is  more  consist- 
ent with  this  theolog)^  than  the  Protestant.  It 
seems  strange  that  so  little  has  been  done  to  re- 
form the  theology  on  which  this  idolatry  was 
engrafted.  Why  should  we  lay  at  the  vestibule 
of  Christianity  an  old  heathen  dogma,  wliich, 
if  made  as  prominent  as  formerly,  would  repel 
thousands,  and  is  now  repelling  many,  since  it 
is  in  conflict  with  the  criticism  and  thought  of 
this  age  ? 

What  if  the  recoi'ds  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  have 
been  misunderstood  for  hundreds  of  years  ?  What 
if  false  opinions  on  this  point  have  long  been 
handed  down  from  father  to  son  ?  Do  we  not 
know  that  this  has  happened  with  many  other 
doermas?  The  more  enlio-htened  faith  of  our 
day  protests  against  views  of  the  Atonement^  of 
Total  Depravity^  of  Future  Punishment,  and  of 
Infant  Damnation,  which  have  been  believed  for 
ages. 

The  old  complaint  that  theology  has  not 
shared  the  progress  of  other  sciences  is  at  length 
losing  its  pertinency.  Truth,  which  is  in  itself 
"the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,"  will 


12  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

necessarily  assume  different  aspects  according  to 
the  condition  of  our  mental  eyes.  It  would  be 
evidence  of  imbecility  or  insanity  to  ask  us  to 
hold  the  astronomical  views  adopted  before  tele- 
scopes were  invented. 

"The  whole  scheme  of  Scripture,"  says  one  of 
the  profoundest  thinkers,  "is  not  yet  understood; 
and,  if  it  ever  comes  to  be  understood,  it  must 
be  in  the  same  way  as  natural  knowledge  is  come 
at;  by  the  continuance  and  progress  of  learning 
and  of  liberty,  and  b}^  particular  persons  attend- 
ing to,  comparing  and  pursuing  intimations  scat- 
tered up  and  down  it,  which  are  overlooked  and 
disregarded  by  the  generality  of  the  world.  Nor 
is  it  at  all  incredible  that  a  book  which  has  been  so 
long  in  the  possession  of  mankind  should  contain 
many  truths  as  jet  undiscovered."  ^ 

This  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  sophistry  in 
one  of  Lord  Macaulay's  Essays.^  He  contends 
that  theology  "is  not  a  progressive  science."  A 
divine  revelation  makes  all  minds  equal.  A 
Newton,  or  a  Locke,  he  says,  can  see  no  further 
than  a  Blackfoot  Indian.  This  must  be  on  the 
supposition  that  revelation  is  the  only  factor  in 

1  Bishop  Butler. 

2  See  Macaulay's  Review  of  Rankers  Ilistori/  of  the  Popes. 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

the  case.  Surely,  our  ability  to  comprehend 
revelation,  to  free  it  from  traditional  misrepre- 
sentations, and  to  clear  our  mental  eye,  is  an- 
other factor.  This  necessitates  a  continued  re- 
adjustment of  old  conclusions.  The  great  his- 
torian was  here  advancing  one  of  the  brilliant 
paradoxes  which  at  times  fascinated  his  pen. 

The  limits  of  the  change  of  opinion  now  advo- 
cated should  be  defined  as  well  as  its  scope. 

In  undertaking  to  show  that  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  the  Primitive  Church  we  are  taught 
that  Jesus  was  born  in  a  natural  generation,  and 
was  the  son  of  Joseph  as  well  as  of  Mary,  nothing 
is  said  that  is  necessarily  adverse  to  Arian  or 
Trinitarian  views  of  his  personality.  It  is  as  con- 
ceivable on  this  hypothesis,  as  on  any  other,  that 
a  preexisting  angel,  or  the  Deity  himself,  was 
incarnated  in  a  body  so  generated.  All  our  a 
priori  speculations  are  out  of  place.  We  are  in- 
terested to  know  what  the  Gospels  say.  Why 
for  their  teachings  should  we  substitute  the  dog- 
matism of  ignorant  and  misguided  ages  ? 

If  it  be  asked  why  we  care  for  one  theory 
rather  than  the  other,  it  seems  a  sufficient  answer 
to  point  to  the  diffei-ent  effect  upon  our  views  of 
tlie  reality  of  tlie  person  of  Jesus.     To  how  many 


14  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

minds  lie  is  not  a  real  person !  His  existence 
seems  to  belong  not  to  the  domain  of  veritable 
history,  but  to  that  of  legendary  theology.  Plato, 
Socrates,  Cicero,  Seneca,  are  real  persons;  but 
Jesus,  to  many,  is  a  fabulous  demi-god.  His  name 
stands  for  a  spectre.  The  perplexing  traditions 
of  his  birth  cast  a  shadowy  mystery  over  the 
whole  of  his  life.  Christians  of  all  names  do  in- 
deed say  that  they  believe  in  his  humanity  ;  but 
to  many  this  is  little  better  than  a  mere  make- 
belief.  Is  there  any  other  name  in  history  around 
which  have  jrathered  such  a  mass  of  confused  and 
self-contradictory  associations  ? 

No  sooner  had  the  person  of  Jesus  been  envel- 
oped in  a  mythical  cloud  than  a  host  of  perplex- 
ing questions  arose  to  distract  the  Church.  It 
was  asked.  Was  his  flesh  of  the  same  essence  as 
his  divinity?  Was  his  body  created  or  un- 
created ?  If  uncreated,  did  it  once  form  a  part  of 
the  Trinity  ?  If  created,  when,  where,  and  out 
of  what,  was  it  made  ?  Was  his  bod}^  corruptible 
or  incorruptible?  If  corruptible,  how  could  it 
ascend  to  heaven  ?  If  incorruptible,  how  could 
he  be  said  to  have  assumed  human  nature  ?  If 
he  was  equal  to  the  Father  and  the  Spirit,  why 
was  he  sent  to  suffer  and  die,  rather  than  either 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

of  the  other  persons  of  the  Trinity  ?  Did  he  suf- 
fer in  his  human  nature,  or  in  his  divine  nature, 
or  in  both  ?  If  he  suffered  in  his  human  nature 
ah)iie,  where  is  the  infinite  atonement  ?  If  he 
suffered  in  the  divine  nature,  did  the  Father  and 
tlie  Spirit  suffer  with  him  ?  Did  lie  have  two 
wills,  or  only  one  will  ?  How  can  a  generated 
son  be  equal  to  an  ungenerated  father  ? 

Every  reader  of  ecclesiastical  history  knows 
that  these  are  only  a  few  of  the  problems  that 
have  fed  the  fires  of  controversy.  Nor  can  it  be 
denied  that  the  generally  accepted  theology  of 
to-day  offers  stumbling-blocks  to  faith.  The  dis- 
tinction attempted  to  be  drawn  between  what 
Jesus  said  in  his  human  nature  and  what  he  said 
in  his  divine  nature,  implies  prevarications  which 
we  should  be  slow  to  impute  to  a  good  man. 

They  thus  interfere  with  the  prompt  move- 
ments of  the  heart.  Not  that  there  are  no  pas- 
sionate expressions  of  love  for  Jesus  ;  but  have 
we  ever  tried  to  analyze  the  emotions  probably  at 
the  bottom  of  them  ?  We  have,  perliaj)s,  found  a 
sense  of  weakness,  of  a  need  of  forgiveness  and 
help,  and  a  longing  for  peace  and  trust,  all  of 
which  have  looked  out  for  an  arm  on  which  they 
may  lean.     But  these  emotions  stand  apai't  from 


16  THE  BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

any  clear  conception  of  him  on  wliom  it  is  said ' 
they  rest.  We  mark  their  subjective  intensity, 
and  not  their  objective  reahty.  Do  those  who 
are  so  absorbed  in  what  they  feel  know  how  Jesus 
feels?  Is  it  possible,  with  their  dim  views  of  his 
personality,  to  have  a  living  sjanpathy  with  his 
soul  ? 

Hence  the  frequent  remark  that  the  prevalent 
type  of  i^iety  is  wanting  in  manliness.  If  men 
feel  that  "  Jesus  has  done  all  foi-  them,"  that 
they  have  only  to  go  to  him  "just  as  they  are," 
that  he  "  washes  away  their  sins,"  and  "  hides 
them  in  the  cleft  of  the  rock,"  is  it  strange  that 
this  passive  trust  should  lack  an  inward  energy  ? 
Is  not  here  one  reason  why  so  many  keep  on  the 
same  plane  of  Christian  experience  from  the  time 
of  conversion  to  the  time  of  death?  This  help- 
less reliance  is  thus  regarded  as  the  crowning 
work  of  him  who  came  that  they  "might  have 
life  and  might  have  it  more  abundantl3\"  Wliat 
we  all  need  for  our  moral  quickening  is  a  pro- 
founder  sympathy  with  the  humanity  of  Jesus; 
but  how  can  that  sympathy  exist  under  the  shad- 
ows that  cloud  the  scenes  of  his  birth  ? 

There  are  signs  of  the  coming  of  a  better  day. 
The  progress  of  our  civilization  is  marked  by  a 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

deeper  appreciation  of  the  character  of  Jesus  — 
his  gentleness,  his  disinterestedness,  his  self-sacri- 
fice, the  depth  of  his  spiritual  insight,  the  clear- 
ness and  strength  of  his  intellectual  convictions, 
and  the  force  of  his  will.  These  lead  us  into  his 
soul.  We  see  it  was  a  human  soul.  Born  into 
the  world  like  man's  soul,  and  like  man's  soul  in- 
creasing in  wisdom  as  he. grew  in  stature,  it  was 
the  vehicle  of  the  spirit  given  to  him  "  without 
measure,"  and  coming  upon,  him  as  he  was  fitted 
to  receive  it.  By  such  a  view  he  is  not  thrust  out 
of  the  sphere  of  our  human  conceptions  and  of 
our  intelligent  love.  Our  faith  may  rest  on  more 
real  and  stable  foundations. 

Hence  it  does  not  seem  too  much  to  look  for 
a  deeper  and  sincerer  manifestation  of  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  when-  those  mists  of  error  are  not  inter- 
posed between  him  and  our  minds.  That  great 
soul,  whose  influence  amid  all  these  obstacles  has 
weighed  on  the  civilized  world  more  than  that  of 
all  other  souls  put  together,  may  exert  a  renewed 
power  when  we  can  see  him  more  clearly,  and 
can  love  him  more  profoundly. 

We  have  only  glanced  at  some  of  the  reasons 
which  draw  us  to  a  subject  that  stands  connected 


18  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

with  many  curious  problems  of  Biblical  criticism, 
with  one  of  the  most  savage  controversies  that 
has  disgraced  the  history  of  the  Church,  and  with 
a  wonderful  literature,  little  known  by  Protest- 
ants, that  grew  out  of  the  worship  of  the  Virgin 
Mary. 

We  have  no  novel  explanations  to  offer,  but 
wish  simply  to  "  stand  in  the  way  and  ask  for 
the  old  paths." 

It  is  only  with  a  reverent  hand  that  we  pre- 
sume to  touch  the  sacred  pictures  which  have 
been  the  world's  delight  and  instruction  through 
so  many  centuries ;  with  the  prayer,  in  the  first 
place,  that  we  may  not  mar  their  beanty,  and, 
secondly,  that  if  we  fail  to  remove  any  of  the 
blotches  with  which  rude  times  have  overlaid 
them,  this  success  may  be  given  to  some  other. 

We  write  in  the  interest  of  no  sect  or  creed, 
and  we  ask  our  readers  to  follow  us  in  that  can- 
did and  honest  spirit  by  which  we  hope  that  we 
too  may  be  guided. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  PROBLEM. 

rMHERE  are  eight  verses  in  the  first  chaptei 
of  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  and.  thirteen 
verses  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  St. 
Luke,  on  which  all  the  dogmas  in  regard  to 
Christ's  birth  have  been  built. 

It  is  so  necessary  for  a  just  examination  of  our 
subject  to  have  these  verses  readily  under  the 
eye,  that  we  shall  here  quote  the  words  of  both 
Evangelists. 

St.  Matthew's  Gospel  reads  as  follows  :  — 

Chapter  i.  18.  Now  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  was  on 
this  wise  :  When  as  his  mother  Mary  was  espoused 
to  Joseph,  before  they  came  together,  she  was  found 
with  child  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

19.  Then  Joseph  her  husband,  being  a  just  man,  and 
not  willing  to  make  her  a  public  example,  was 
minded  to  put  her  away  privily. 

20.  But  while  he  thought  on  these  things,  behold, 
the   angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  him  in  a 


20  THE   BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

dream,  saying,  Joseph,  thou  son  of  David,  fear  not 
to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy  wife :  for  that  which  is 
conceived  in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 

21.  And  she  shall  bring  forth  a  son,  and  thou  shalt 
call  his  nanae  Jesus  ;  'for  he  shall  save  his  people 
from  their  sins- 

22.  Now  all  this  was  done  that  it  might  be  fulfilled 
which  was  spoken  of  the  Lord  by  the  prophet, 
saying  : 

23.  Behold,  a  virgin  shall  be  with  child,  and  shall 
bring  forth  a  son,  and  they  shall  call  his  name  Em- 
manuel, which  being  interpreted  is,  God  with  us. 

24.  Then  Joseph,  being  raised  from  sleep  did  as  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  had  bidden  him,  and  took  unto 
him  his  wife  : 

25.  And  knew  her  not  till  she  had  brought  forth 
her  first-born  son  :  and  he  called  his  name  Jesus. 

St.  Luke's  Gospel  reads  as  follows  :  — 

Chapter  i.  26.  And  in  the  sixth  month  the  angel 
Gabriel  was  sent  from  God  unto  a  city  of  Galilee, 
named  Nazareth, 

27.  To  a  virgin  espoused  to  a  man  whose  name  was 
Joseph,  of  the  house  of  David ;  and  the  virgin's 
name  was  Mary. 

28.  And  the  angel  came  in  unto  her  and  said.  Hail, 
thou  that  art  highly  favored,  the  Lord  is  with  thee  : 
blessed  art  thou  among  women. 


THE  PROBLEM.  21 

29.  And  when  she  saw  him,  she  was  troubled  at  his 
saying,  and  cast  in  her  mind  what  manner  of  sahi- 
tation  this  should  be. 

30.  And  the  angel  said  unto  her.  Fear  not  Mary, 
for  thou  hast  found  favor  with  God. 

31.  And  behold,  thou  shalt  conceive  in  thy  womb, 
and  bring  forth  a  son,  and  shalt  call  his  name 
Jesus. 

32.  He  shall  be  great,  and  shall  be  called  the  Son  of 
the  Highest ;  and  the  Lord  God  shall  give  unto 
him  the  throne  of  his  father  David : 

33.  Aud  he  shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob 
for  ever;  and  of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no 
end. 

34.  Then  said  Mary  unto  the  angel.  How  shall  this 
be,  seeing  I  know  not  a  man  ? 

35.  And  the  angel  answered  and  said  unto  her,  The 
Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  the  power 
of  the  Highest  shall  overshadow  thee :  therefore 
also  that  holy  thing  which  shall  be  born  of  thee 
shall  be  called  the  vSon  of  God. 

36.  And  behold,  thy  cousin  Elisabeth,  she  hath  also 
conceived  a  son  in  her  old  age  ;  and  this  is  the 
sixth  month  with  her  who  was  called  barren : 

37.  For  with  God  nothing  shall  be  impossible. 

38.  And  Mary  said.  Behold  the  handmaid  of  the 
Lord,  be  it  unto  me  according  to  thy  word.  And 
the  angel  departed  from  her. 


22  THE  BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

Neither  St.  Mark  nor  St.  John  has  one  word 
relating  to  the  details  named  in  the  above 
twenty-one  verses.  In  the  case  of  St.  John  an 
explanation  has  often  been  given  of  his  silence. 
It  is  generally  believed  that  he  wrote  after  he 
had  seen  the  other  three  Gospels ;  and  it  may 
not  have  fallen  into  his  design,  it  has  been  said, 
to  repeat  what  he  had  there  found  correctly  nar- 
rated. 

But  his  design,  whatever  it  was,  did  not  pre- 
vent him  from  repeating  many  other  things 
which  his  predecessors  had  recorded  ;  whj^  did 
.he  omit  this  ?  As  he  wrote,  he  says,  John  xx.  31, 
to  show  "  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,"  it  is  not  easy  to  see  why  there  is  no  refer- 
ence to  such  proofs  as  the  above  texts  are  now 
thought  to  furnish,  especially  as  he  must  have 
known  that  his  work  might  fall  into  hands  that 
would  never  receive  the  other  Gospels. 

It  is  even  more  difficult  to  account  for  the 
silence  of  St.  Mark,  who  was  a  companion  of 
St.  Peter,  from  whose  lips,  as  is  believed,  he 
obtained  the  materials  of  his  Gospel.  St.  Peter 
was  a  native  of  Galilee,  was  one  of  the  most  in- 
timate disciples  of  Jesus,  and  doubtless  person- 
ally knew  his  parents.     These  marvelous    inci- 


THE   PROBLEM.  23 

dents  that  preceded  the  birth  of  his  Master,  if 
they  occurred  in  the  manner  in  which  in  later 
times  they  have  been  understood,  must  have 
been  the  subject  of  frequent  conversation  in  the 
circle  in  which  he  lived,  and  must  have  been  im- 
pressed deeply  upon  his  ardent  mind.  How  hap- 
pens it  that  we  do  not  get  one  word  about  them 
through  his  interpreter,  St.  Mark  ? 

There  is  another  question  somewhat  perplex- 
ing. St.  Matthew's  eight  verses  give  account  of 
the  angelic  visitation  to  Joseph,  but  have  nothing 
to  say  in  regard  to  the  revelation  made  to  Mary. 
The  fact  is  precisely  opposite  in  the  thirteen 
verses  in  St.  Luke,  where  we  read  of  the  aneelic 
visitation  to  Mary,  but  nothing  is  said  of  the 
revelation  made  to  Joseph.  Of  course,  in  such 
brief  memoirs  some  things  must  have  been  omit- 
ted by  each  writer,  and  we  have  no  full  history 
until  we  put  all  their  accounts  together  ;  bu* 
there  does  not  seem  to  be  a  ready  answer  to  the 
question,  why,  if  they  attached  importance  to 
these  traditions,  each  writer  gave  only  half  of  the 
story,  not  knowing  that  anybody  would  report 
the  other  half. 

There  are  still  other  queries  that  must  have 
suggested  themselves  to  every  thoughtful  reader. 


24  THE    BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

If  our  common  interpretation  of  the  above  verses 
be  correct,  how  happened  it  that  John  the  Bap- 
tist was  so  ignorant  of  Jesus  ?  Twice  he  said, 
"  I  knew  liim  not."  John  i.  31,  33.  They  were 
nearly  of  the  same  age,  had  been  brought  up  in 
the  same  region,  their  motliers  were  cousins,  and 
were  well  acquainted  with  each  other,  and,  ac- 
cording to  the  received  interpretation,  botli  moth- 
ers had  the  most  amazing  angelic  visitations,  in 
regard  to  which  they  conversed  together. 

Christian  art  has  interpreted  all  these  facts  as 
implying  a  familiar  acquaintance  with  each  other, 
and  a  mutual  acquaintance  on  the  part  of  their 
children.  In  numberless  "  Holy  Families,"  the 
infant  John  and  the  infant  Jesus  are  represented 
as  saluting  each  other.  It  is  true  the  children 
may  have  grown  up  apart ;  but  even  then,  on 
the  supposition  of  a  literal  understanding  of  the 
above  texts,  it  seems  incomprehensible  that  these 
stupenduous  events  attending  the  birth  of  these 
children,  events  which  must  have  been  in  their 
families  the  subject  of  frequent  conversation  and 
auguries,  should  not  have  led  John  to  know 
Jesus. 

Our  wonder  does  not  here  cease.  Did  not 
Jesus  himself   know  of   the    marvelous    circum- 


THE   PEOBLEM.  25 

stances  tliat  preceded  his  birth  ?  Did  not  his 
mother,  who  "  kept  all  these  sa3'ings  in  her 
heart,"  ever  speak  of  them  to  that  child  in  re- 
gard to  whom  tbey  had  excited  such  surprising 
expectations  ?  How  happens  it,  then,  that  Jesus 
never  referred  to  them  when  he  was  so  often 
intent  upon  proving  that  he  came  from  God  ? 

It*  can  hardly  be  maintained  that  some  gen- 
eral words  of  his,  such  as,  "  I  came  down  from 
Heaven,"  "  I  am  from  above,"  "  whom  the  Father 
sent  into  the  world,"  are  such  decisive  references 
to  his  birth,  as,  in  the  case  supposed,  we  should 
expect  from  his  lips.  Phrases  of  an  equivalent 
meaning  he  applied  to  his  disciples,  whom,  he 
said,  he  sent  into  the  world,  as  the  Father  had 
sent  him.  Had  it  been  a  point  capable  of  proof, 
or  one  of  admitted  belief  in  the  circle  of  his 
family  and  friends,  that  his  origin  was  gener- 
ically  different  from  any  other  being,  that  his 
birth  had  been  foretold  by  celestial  visitants,  and 
that  he  had  been  supernaturally  conceived,  does 
it  not  seem  amazing  that  Jesus  never  once  clearly 
appealed  to  this  evidence  of  his  divine  mission  ? 

When  he  was  arraigned  as  a  common  disturber 
of  the  peace,  Pilate  wanted  to  know  Avho  he  was, 
and  showed  signs  of  a  willingness  to  release  him. 


26  THE   BIRTH    OF  JESUS. 

Jesus  said,  "  For  this  was  I  born,  and  for  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  might  bear 
witness  to  the  truth."  John  xviii.  37.  Was  not 
here  one  place  where  we  should  have  expected 
him  to  give  some  hint  of  the  miraculous  manner 
of  his  birth  ?  If  this  had  been  a  point  that  was 
tlien  believed,  or  was  capable  of  proof,  could  any- 
thing have  been  more  in  his  defence  ?  Why  was 
not  some  reference  to  it  here  made  ? 

Nor  is  this  all.  Why  is  it  that  throughout  the 
Gospels  there  is  no  appeal  to  the  events  above 
recited?  Excepting  in  the  verses  quoted,  those 
events  are  as  much  ignored  in  all  the  Gospels, 
and  in  every  part  of  each  Gospel,  as  if  they  had 
been  recorded  in  another  history,  and  concerned 
some  other  being. 

If  it  should  bfe  said  that  St.  John  refers  to 
them  in  the  Proem  of  his  Gospel,  Avhen  he  says, 
"  The  Word  was  God  ....  and  the  Word  became 
flesh,"  we  must  ask  the  reader  to  pause  for  one 
moment  upon  the  meaning  of  that  statement.  It 
is  possible  to  thrust  interpretations  into  it  that  go 
a  great  way  beyond  what  it  affirms.  It  does  not 
say  where,  or  how,  or  when  the  Divine  Spirit 
was  incarnated  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  does  not, 
therefore,  conflict  with  the  supposition  that  God's 


THE   PROBLEM.  27 

spirit  came  upon  him  gradually  as  lie  "  increased 
in  wisdom  and  stature,"  and  came  in  harmony 
with  the  development  of  his  mental  and  moral 
life.  Thus  these  words  seem  to  us  to  have  no 
necessary  bearing  upon  the  question  of  a  miracu- 
lous birth. 

If  it  should  be  said  that  this  Proem  of  St. 
John's  Gospel  affirms  a  personal  existence  of 
Jesus,  before  his  birth  on  earth,  it  may  be  well 
to  ask,  not  only  if  we  do  not  assign  to  the  Evan- 
gelist's words  ideas  which  are  not  necessarily 
there,  but  also  if  we  do  not  impute  to  him  the 
very  doctrine  which  he  undertook  to  refute.  It 
was  against  a  Gnostic  conception  of  some  Eon,  or 
Being,  distinct  from  God,  that  St.  John's  intro- 
duction is  generally  supposed  to  be  aimed ;  and 
he  says  that  it  was  God's  Logos  that  was  in  the 
beginning,  which  created  the  world,  and  became 
incarnated ;  and  this  he  repeatedly  affirms  was  no 
distinct  person,  but  was  God  himself,  as  God's 
Life  and  Light  were  God  himself. 

Perhaps  it  will  be  said  that  in  such  brief  me- 
moirs one  statement  of  a  miraculous  birth  was 
enough.  But  how  did  each  writer  know  tluit  it 
had  been  stated  at  all?  Besides,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  each  writer  often  repeated  what  the  others 


28  THE  BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

had  said.  Nor  this  alone.  Each  at  times  re- 
peated what  he  himself  had  recorded.  The 
feeding  of  the  five  thousand,  the  predictions 
of  Christ's  sufferings,  of  his  rejection  by  the 
Jews,  of  his  crucifixion  by  the  priests,  these, 
and  other  important  events  in  their  narratives, 
were  not  dismissed  once  for  all.  They  were  re- 
ferred to  again  and  again.  Now  the  events  pre- 
ceding Christ's  birth,  taking  them  as  generally 
understood,  are  not  only  among  the  most  extraor- 
dinary in  the  Evangelical  Narratives,  but  are  the 
most  important  in  their  bearing  upon  the  great 
point  which  the  Gospels  were  written  to  estab- 
lish.    Why  this  silence  about  them  ? 

Our  surprise  culminates  in  considering  one 
other  fact.  We  have  in  the  Book  of  Acts  re- 
ports of  sermons  preached  by  the  Apostles  who 
endeavored  to  pi'ove  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of 
God;  and  following  the  Book  of  Acts,  we  have 
Epistles  sent  to  churches  in  different  parts  of 
the  world,  designed  to  set  forth  the  same  leading 
truth.  But  in  all  of  them,  Sermons  and  Epistles, 
there  is  no  statement  of  the  miraculous  concep- 
tion of  Christ. 

Take  the  sermon  recorded  in  the  third  chapter 
of    Acts,    Avhich    Beter    preached    after    he    had 


THE  PROBLEM.  29 

healed  the  lame  man  at  the  Beautiful  Gate  of  the 
Temple.  His  object  was  to  explain  to  the  Jews 
who  Christ  was,  as  one  glorified  by  the  God  of 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  but  denied  by  them, 
and  killed,  and  raised  from  the  dead.  How  per- 
tinent to  his  purpose  to  refer  to  his  supernatural 
birth,  if  that  had  been  a  point  capable  of  proof 
or  belief. 

Or  take  the  sermon,  recorded  in  the  seventh 
chapter  of  Acts,  which  Stephen  preached  just 
before  his  martyrdom,  —  the  longest  apostolical 
sermon  of  which  we  have  any  record,  —  giving  a 
resume  of  Jewish  and  Christian  history,  from  the 
call  of  Abraham  to  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus. 
Why  not  one  hint  about  this  miraculous  concep- 
tion ? 

Look,  also,  to  the  sermon  which  Paul  preached 
in  Antioch  of  Pisidia,  recorded  in  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  Acts,  a  sermon  recounting  prominent 
events  from  the  exodus  out  of  Egypt  to  the  res- 
urrection of  Jesus.  Why  not  one  word  said 
about  his  supernatural  birth? 

Moreover,  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  of  St. 
Peter,  of  St.  John,  there  is  no  distinct  allusion 
to  this  point,  though,  had  it  been  then  under- 
stood as  it  is  understood  now,  there  could  have 


30  THE  BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

been  nothing  more  natural,  or  more  decisive  than 
to  adduce  it. 

It  is  true,  some  have  quoted  the  expressions  of 
St.  Paul,  Romans  ix.  5,  "of  whom  as  concerning 
the  flesh  Christ  came ; "  implying,  it  may  be 
thought,  that  he  had  also  another  origin.  But 
the  original  expression,  KaTo.  adpna,  means,  as  the 
commentators  tell  us,  hereditary  descent,  and  so 
damao;es  the  use  often  made  of  the  text. 

Another  expression,  Philippians  ii.  6,  "Who, 
being  in  the  form  of  God  —  took  upon  him  the 
form  of  a  servant ; "  has,  as  it  may  be  said,  a 
reference  to  a  supernatural  origin.  But  perhaps 
we  shall  by  and  by  see  that  later  opinions  as- 
cribed a  meaning  to  these  words  which  the  writer 
could  not  have  had  in  his  mind.  And,  moreover, 
in  resfard  to  that  something  which  Christ  had  in 
him  higher  than  what  he  inherited  by  natural 
descent,  that  something  which  made  him  in  the 
form  of  God,  —  as  that  might  have  come  upon 
him  at  any  j^eriod  of  liis  growth,  —  what  proof 
have  these  texts  of  a  miraculous  birth  ? 

In  regard  to  the  Epistles,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  they  were  sent  to  the  churches  before 
the  Gospels  had  been  written.  At  least,  we  have 
no  distinct  traces  of  the  Gospels  until  after  the 


THE   PROBLEM.  31 

transmission  of  the  Epistles.  Every  reader  will 
at  once  see  what  bearing  this  fact  has  upon  the 
argument  before  us. 

It  might  be  now  said  that  the  writers  of  the 
Epistles  felt  that  there  was  no  need  of  relating 
the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus,  or  of  appealing  to 
this  as  a  proof  of  his  divine  origin,  if  they  knew 
that  the"  history  of  that  birth  was  already  in  the 
hands  of  their  readers.  But  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  to  show  that  the  Romans,  the  Corin- 
thians, the  Galatians,  the  Ephesians,  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  had  any  knowledge  of  that  history,  had 
ever  heai'd  of  it,  or  had  the  least  suspicion  of  it. 

Indeed,  the  presumption  is  all  the  other  way. 
The  family  traditions  were  appended  to  the 
memoirs  of  Jesus  at  a  later  time.  They  occupied 
no  place  in  the  first,  the  Epistolary,  publication 
of  the  Gospel.  Hence  they  were  the  ground- 
work of  no  argument,  and  received  no  distinct 
allusion.  It  seems  incredible  that  Paul  and  Peter 
and  John  regarded  them  as  of  importance  in  the 
life  of  Jesus. 

Certainly,  here  are  noteworthy  facts.  This 
uniform,  persistent,  and  unbroken  reticence  is  in 
strange  contrast  with  what  Ave  find  at  a  later 
day.     A  way  of  referring  to  the  birth  of  Jesus 


32  THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

sprung  up  in  after  ages  which  ascribed  an  im- 
portance to  the  eight  verses  of  St.  Matthew,  and 
to  the  thirteen  verses  of  St.  Luke,  wliich,  so  far 
as  appears,  was  never  imagined  by  Jesus  and  his 
apostles.  History  tell  us  when  it  sprung  up,  and 
where  it  sprung  up,  and  how  it  sprung  uj),  and 
how  it  colored  the  whole  stream  of  Christian 
thought  from  that  time  Onwards,  and  shapes 
opinions  even  to  this  day. 

And  history  tells  us,  also,  of  the  wild  hypoth- 
eses which,  in  modern  times,  have  been  invented 
to  get  rid  of  these  interpretations.  Without  re- 
ferring to  the  English  Deists  of  the  last  century, 
who  ridiculed  the  stories  of  Christ's  birth  as 
absurd  fables,  we  need  only  allude  to  Strauss, 
who  sets  them  all  aside  as  myths,  that  is,  as 
something  which  was  "  characterized  by  the  rich 
pictorial  and  imaginative  mode  of  thought  and 
expression  of  primitive  ages." 

Professor  Weisse  maintained  that  these  nar- 
ratives were  pious  imitations  of  Grecian  legends, 
designed  to  show  that  Christ  had  an  origin  some- 
thing like  that  of  heathen  gods ;  and  of  this 
hypothesis  Neander  well  says  that  "  Weisse 
has  transferred  his  own  mode  of  contemplating 
heathen  myths  to  a  people  that  would  have  re- 
volted from  it." 


THE   PROBLEM.  33 

Eiclihorn  regarded  these  stories  as  the  expres- 
siolis  of  an  unscientific  age,  addicted  to  wonder, 
and  in  love  with  the  marvelous.  Paulus  distin- 
guished between  fact  and  opinion,  and  held  that 
this  last  covered  the  record  with  the  drapery  of 
miracle,  which  must  be  drawn  aside  to  see  the 
historical  verity.  Kant  held  to  a  moral  inter- 
pretation, looking  for  a  sense  which  agrees  with 
the  laws  of  the  pure  reason,  and  he  regarded  the 
miraculous  stories  only  as  an  imaginative  de- 
scription of  an  ideal  humanity  pleasing  to  God. 
De  Wette  thought  that  after  Jesus  had  become 
famous,  reports  about  him  were  repeated  from 
mouth  to  mouth,  till  his  early  years  became 
gradually  encircled  with  these  poetical  embel- 
lishments. Renan  believes  that  these  tales  are 
legendary  accounts,  framed  after  the  pattern  of 
similar  stories  in  the  Old  Testament. 

In  view  of  this  wide  diversity  of  opinion  it  may 
be  well,  first  of  all,  to  consider  carefully  what  the 
gospel  record  actually  says.  And  what  if  we 
find  that  the  difficulty  of  explanation  lies  less  in 
that  than  in  ourselves  ?  If  we  see  that  the  record 
is  right,  and  that  it  is  we  who  are  wrong,  we 
who  have  blundered  over  it,  this  will  be  a  kind 
of  discovery  which  has  often  been  made  before. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   PROBABLE    FACTS. 

ri  10  the  mere  English  reader  each  Gospel  seems 
to  be  entirely  the  composition  of  the  writer 
whose  name  it  bears ;  and  we  usually  regard  it  fis 
a  connected  work  from  one  and  the  same  hand. 
An  acquaintance  with  the  original  language  shows 
that  this  impression  is  incorrect.  Criticism  soon 
learns  to  disintegrate  each  Gospel,  and  to  recog- 
nize in  the  different  style  of  different  portions 
different  documents  which  had  been  put  together. 
An  illustration  may  give  some  light  to  this 
subject.  We  may  suppose  an. incident  in  the  life 
of  Washington  to  have  been  described  in  the 
rude  diction  of  a  common  soldier,  writing  at  the 
time  of  its  occurrence,  and  afterwards  other  facts 
of  the  same  incident  to  have  been  described  in 
the  plain  historical  language  of  ]\'Ir.  Sparks,  and 
more  ornately  in  the  flowing  periods  of  Mr. 
Everett.  Bancroft  may  have  jDut  all  the  accounts 
together  just  as  he  found  them,  and  the  whole 
may  be  known  as  his  history. 


THE   PROBABLE   FACTS.  35 

Now  if  that  history  should  be  translated  into 
French,  and  from  that  into  Spanish,  and  from 
that  into  Italian,  these  peculiarities  of  diction 
would  be  likely  to  be  worn  away  in  passing 
through  so  many  hands ;  and  to  the  Italian  reader 
the  work  might  seem  homogeneous,  and  all  from 
the  pen  of  Bancroft. 

But  suppose  the  Italian  reader  should  be  well 
acquainted  with  English,  and  should  read  the 
history,  not  after  these  successive  translations, 
but  just  as  Bancroft  left  it ;  he  would  at  once 
mark  the  diversity  of  style,  and  would  unhesitat- 
ingly assign  portions  of  the  narrative  to  the  un- 
lettered soldier  above  referred  to,  and  portions  to 
the  chaste  words  of  Sparks,  and  other  portions  to 
the  rounded  periods  of  Everett,  and  connecting 
portions  to  the  historian  Bancroft.  If  he  were  a 
master  of  the  English  tongue,  and  acquainted 
with  the  different  styles  of  these  writers,  he 
never  would  make  the  blunder  of  assiffninsf  all 
these  different  compositions  to  one  and  the  same 
hand. 

In  each  Gospel,  not  as  we  have  it  after  num- 
berless translations  into  other  languages,  but  as 
we  find  it  in  the  original  tongue,  there  is  a  va- 
riety   of   style    somewhat    corresponding   to   the 


36  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

above  supposition.  For  example,  the  first  four 
verses  of  Luke's  Gospel  are  in  pure  Greek,  and 
then  follows  an  entirely  different  diction  full  of 
Hebraisms.  It  is  the  account  of  the  birth  of  John 
and  of  Jesus ;  and  if  the  reader  will  notice  the 
fifth  verse  of  the  first  chapter  he  will  see  that  it 
begins  as  a  separate  and  distinct  document. 

A  similar  remark  may  be  made  of  the  first 
chapter  of  Matthew.  The  first  seventeen  verses 
appear  as  an  independent  genealogy.  Accord- 
ingly they  are  called  "  The  Book  of  the  Genera- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ."  Then  the  eighteenth  verse 
begins  as  a  separate  record,  though  the  diffei'ence 
in  style  between  this  and  the  rest  of  Matthew's 
Gospel  is  not  so  marked  as  in  the  case  of  Luke, 
for  Luke  was  a  man  of  more  culture  than  Mat- 
thew. 

The  poetical  rhythm  of  the  Magnificat,  Luke  i. 
46-55,  and  of  the  Benedictus  Dominus  of  Zacha- 
rias,  Luke  i.  68-79,  is  wholly  different  from  the 
general,  matter-of-fact  style  of  Luke.  The  last 
chapter  of  Mark  critics  believe  to  be  an  appendix 
to  that  Gospel.  John's  Gospel  they  suppose  orig- 
inally ended  with  the  last  verse  of  the  twentieth 
chapter.  The  first  part  of  the  eighth  chapter  of 
John,  it  is  thought,  is  misplaced,  and  the  twenty- 


THE    PROBABLE    FACTS.  37 

second  chapter  of  Luke  has  some  peculiarities  of 
diction  that  distinfjuish  it  from  the  rest  of  that 
book.  His  genealog}^  Luke  iii.  23-38,  he  prob- 
ably quoted  from  some  family  record,  without 
once  dreaming  of  indorsing  its  entire  literal  ac- 
curacy. 

At  the  time  the  Gospels  were  composed  there 
were  many  memoirs  of  the  birth  and  life  of 
Jesus  in  circulation,  Luke  expressly  bears  wit- 
ness to  this  fact.  He  begins  his  record  with  the 
words,  "  Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in  hand 
to  set  forth  in  order  a  declaration  of  those  things 
which  are  most  surely  believed  among  us."  So 
also  the  existence  of  apocryphal  Gospels  is  at- 
tested by  ecclesiastical  history.  It  is  probable 
that  a  vast  number  of  these  memoirs  had  been 
written  for  the  use  of  different  churches ;  some 
containing  the  recollections  of  one  apostle,  some 
those  of  another,  some  the  reminiscences  in  the 
family  of  Jesus,  or  brief  annals  by  various  hands 
of  what  he  said  and  did  in  the  places  he  visited. 
Several  of  these  documents  were  put  together; 
and  the  four  collections  most  generally  approved 
have  come  down  to  us  under  the  four  names  they 
bear. 

We   must  not  suppose,   therefore,   that   Mary 


38  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

improvised  the  3Iagnijicat  at  the  time  of  the  vis- 
itiition,  or  that  Zacharias  sang  the  Benedictus  at 
the  birth  of  his  son.  These  were  probably  com- 
posed long  afterwards,  as  expressive  of  the  sup- 
posed feelings  at  the  time,  and  were  inserted  in 
the  family  memoirs  to  which  the  subsequent  emi 
nence  of  John  and  of  Jesus  gave  rise. 

These  family  memoirs,  as  Olshausen  suggests, 
were  adopted  by  Luke ;  oftentimes,  as  that  critic 
adds,  "  quite  unchanged  or  but  slightly  amended." 
And  so  it  happened  that  more  or  less  of  them 
were  attached  to  the  evangelical  narrative,  none, 
indeed,  to  Mark,  or  John,  a  few  only  to  Matthew, 
but  more  to  Luke. 

Apparently,  as  we  judge  such  things,  they 
were  accidentally  attached,  as  it  is  evident  the 
apostles  did  not  assign  much  importance  to  these 
domestic  reminiscences.  Of  this  we  have  proof 
in  the  little  use  they  made  of  them,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  preceding  chapter.  We  shall  find  a 
still  further  proof  when  we  come  to  mark  what 
these  reminiscences  really  mean. 

An  angel  appeared  to  Zacharias  announcing 
the  birth  of  John.  An  angel  appeared  to  Mary 
announcing  the  birth  of  Jesus.  An  angel  ap- 
peared to  Joseph  to  allay  his  suspicions,  and  to 


THE   PROBABLE   FACTS.  39 

suggest  the  flight  into  Egypt.  What  was  the 
origin  of  this  language  about  angels,  and  what 
does  it  denote? 

These  questions  cai'iy  us  back  to  the  early  lit- 
erary culture  of  the  Hebrew  people.  Prior  to 
alphabetic  writing  they  undoubtedly  followed  the 
fashion  of  all  other  nations  in  the  use  of  picture- 
language.  Some  visible  representation  stood  for 
every  mental  experience. 

How  do  thoughts  come  into  the  mind  ?  How 
do  hopes  and  persuasions  enter  the  heart  ?  To 
primitive  people  it  did  not  seem  that  these  are 
the  natural  effect  of  our  oAvn  reflections,  as  indeed 
they  may  not  always  be.  It  was  believed  that 
all  deep  impressions  were  sent  within  us  directly 
by  God.  If  sent,  it  was  supposed  there  was 
a  messenger  to  bear  them.  Hence  sprung  up 
the  idea  of  a  multitude  of  celestial  beings  charged 
with  the  duty  of  bringing  convictions  and  emo- 
tions to  human  souls. 

Early  art,  prior  to  the  invention  of  letters, 
expressed  this  belief,  as  we  have  said,  by  pict- 
ures, which  in  turn  helped  to  fasten  it  more 
firmly  on  the  popular  mind.  The  messenger  was 
depicted  as  being  in  youthful  beauty,  aerial  and 
winged ;   and  names,   found  during   the    Babylo- 


40  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

nian  captivity,  were  given  to  the  chief  actors  in 
this  imaginary  host.  Before  the  use  of  verbal 
language,  how  else  could  thei-e  be  expressions 
of  feelings  and  thoughts  supposed  to  have  come 
from  heaven  ?  These  pictures  of  angels,  and 
the  language  which  subsequently  grew  out  of 
them,  were  a  necessity  in  the  course  of  human 
progress. 

Thus,  in  our  abstract  terms,  we  say,  "  I  am 
convinced  of  such  a  truth."  But  in  early  ages 
men  did  not  regard  this  conviction  as  something 
evolved  by  themselves.  They  thought  that  God 
sent  it  to  them,  and  that  an  angel  brought  it. 
Men  continued  to  use  this  picturesque  diction 
after  it  had  passed  out  of  its  first  literal  signi- 
fication. Indeed,  it  retains  to  some  extent  its 
hold  upon  the  imagination  to  tliis  day.  We 
still  say  the  thought  came  to  me  like  an  angel 
from  heaven.  We  say  also  that  we  are  sustained 
by  the  angel  of  hope. 

When  we  ourselves  use  this  metaphorical  lan- 
guage, we  see  at  once  that  it  is  employed  in  a 
secondary  sense.  But  we  do  not  always  remem- 
ber that  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  may 
have  so  used  it  also.  To  their  words  we  ascribe 
a  bald,  literal  meaning ;  and  so  we  make  the  mis- 


THE   PROBABLE   FACTS.  41 

take  which,  a  thousand  years  hence,  an  inter- 
preter of  words  used  now  may  make,  who,  when 
he  reads  that  we  were  thunderstruck  at  hearing 
some  news,  should  gravely  say  that  we  had  act- 
ually received  a  shock  of  an  electrical  bolt. 

In  the  mouths  of  the  evangelical  wiiters  .this 
language  about  angels  was  probably  thus  used 
in  a  subjective  sense.  It  was  employed  to  carry 
on,  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  with  a  suj^posed 
outward  person,  a  wholly  internal  process  of 
thought.  Unlettered  persons  among  us  still  use 
language  in  a  similar  way.  A  plain  man  de- 
scribed his  doubts  about  helping  a  beggar  in  the 
following  style :  "  Sympathy  for  the  poor  fellow 
said  give  ;  but  justice  ui-ged  that  the  beggar  was 
able  to  work."  This  is  exactly  in  the  manner  of 
the  verses  in  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke,  only  the 
writers  of  these  verses  would  have  called  sym- 
pathy and  justice  by  the  name  of  angels.  Until 
we  see  what  the  sacred  writers  really  intended 
by  this  phraseology,  we  turn  all  their  artless  sto- 
ries into  an  absurd  travesty. 

Evil  spirits  also,  as  it  was  believed,  had  a  mis- 
sion to  bring  wicked  suggestions  and  Avishes ; 
hence  the  whole  hierarchy  of  demons.  The 
temptation   of   Jesus  is,  as  we  suppose,  usually 


42  THE   BIETH   OF   JESUS. 

interpreted  as  an  internal  experience,  and  not  as 
an  outward  scene.  It  may  be  added  that  Jewish 
scholars,  who  know  the  meaning  of  old  Hebrew 
modes  of  exjwession,  do  not  believe  that  a  per- 
son is  implied  by  the  word  angel.  (See  Nean- 
der,  vol.  i.  p.  42.) 

In  the  tenth  arid  eleventh  cha^^ters  of  the  Acts 
we  see  a  frequent  angelophania,  or  api^earance  of 
angels.  But  this  was  not  appealed  to  in  early 
times  as  evidence  of  the  truth  of  Christianity. 
It  was  understood  to  be  the  way  in  which  illiter- 
ate men  expressed  themselves.  This  mode  of 
speech,  as  we  have  said,  belongs  everywhere  to 
certain  stages  of  culture,  in  which  men  make  no 
discrimination  between  the  operations  of  their 
own  minds  and  the  influence  of  higher  powers. 
All  that  they  think  and  feel  in  reflective  states 
they  regard  as  coming  to  them  from  above. 
Thus,  in  the  Greek  mythology,  the  warlike  were 
actuated  by  Mars,  the  skilled  by  Apollo,  the 
loving  by  Venus,  the  wise  by  Zeus ;  and  Socrates 
explained  how  the  functions  of  these  divinities 
ceased  as  soon  as  abstract  terms  were  invented. 

So  was  it  in  the  case  of  the  Hebrews.  The 
use  of  abstract  terms  superseded  the  angelopha- 
nia ;    or    at   least   banished   it    to    the    realm    of 


THE   PROBABLE   FACTS.  43 

poetry,  in  which,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  it 
still  survives. 1 

Zacharias,  a  priest,  married  (for  in  those  days 
marriage  w^as  a  holy  state,  and  it  was  impious  to 
suppose  that  one  contracted  impurity  thereby), 
shared  the  feeling  so  general  in  his  day  that  the 
happiest  lot  of  man  was  found  in  the  parental 
relation ;  and  he  and  his  wife  had  prayed  for  this 
blessing,  which,  through  their  age,  had  now 
seemed  hopeless.  Burning  incense  in  a  dark  in- 
closure,^  lighted  only  by  flames  fitfully  playing 
on  the  ascending  smoke,  his  eye  rested  on  some 
convolution  at  the  right  hand  of  the  altar,  as  he 
was  revolving  in  his  mind  his  life-long  prayer ; 
and  a  persuasion  took  possession  of  his  soul  that, 
after  all,  God  would  answer  it. 

'1  Some  attempt  to  explain  the  pictoiial  formation  of  Hebrew 
phrases  may  be  found  in  a  work  published  in  Boston  by  Little, 
Brown,  &  Co.,  entitled  Traces  of  Picture-icriting  in  the  Bible,  by 
the  author  of  this  book. 

2  "  A  sacred  chamber  into  which  tlie  liglit  of  day  ne^er  pene- 
trated, but  where  the  dim  fires  of  the  altar,  and  the  chandeliers, 
which  were  never  extinguished,  gave  a  solemn  and  uncertain 
light,  still  more  bedimmed  by  the  clouds  of  smoke  arising  from 
the  newly-fed  altar  of  incense."  Milman's  History  of  Christian- 
ity, chapter  2. 

Grotius  thought  that  Zacharias  offered  up  tlie  national  prayer 
for  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  and  that  the  expression,  thy  prayer 
IS  heard,  refers  to  this. 


44  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

How  often,  in  human  experience,  vivid  subject- 
ive states  mingle  with  outward  objects,  so  that 
they  mutually  recall  each  other  !  Who  can  say 
there  was  nothing  divine  in  his  persuasion,  or 
that  there  was  nothing  unusu.al  in  the  bestow- 
ment  of  a  child  to  their  advanced  years  ?  If 
we  do  not  recognize  something  "  suj)ernatural  " 
here,  as  certain  metaphysical  disquisitions  ex- 
plain that  word,  does  it  follow  that  God  Avas  not 
in  all  this  ?  It  was  at  least  natural  that,  after- 
wards, the  grateful  and  gratified  father  should 
devoutly  recall  the  alternate  hopes  and  fears  that 
marked  that  memorable  moment  of  self-com- 
munion. 

To  the  incense-burning  priest  it  seemed  as  if 
his  backwardness  to  believe  in  the  possibility  of 
the  coveted  blessing  was  a  sinful  distrust  of  the 
divine  power,  and  must  be  punished  by  a  silence 
enjoined  b}'^  the  same  angel-persuasion  ^  that 
now  had  influence  over  him.  Examples  of  xself- 
imposed  silence  have  not  been  unknown.  See 
Daniel  x.  15.  We  find  them  in  almost  every  age, 
and  in  some  cases  men,  as  a  voluntary  penance, 

1  "  Mrj  Swafievoi  \a\)/(rai  ilicitur  is,  qui  vel  propter  physic.a,  vel 
propter  moralia  impedimenta  loqui  nou  potest."  Rosenmiiller, 
in  loco. 


THE   PROBABLE   FACTS.  45 

have  not   spoken   a   word  for  fifteen  or  twenty 
years. 

The  distrust  and  self-punishment  of  Zacharias 
were  recalled  years  afterwards,  when  the  emi- 
nence of  the  child  had  given  such  importance  to 
these  reminiscences.  If  they  had  been  recorded 
in  some  family  memoirs,  and  formed  an  episode 
in  the  jDrivate  life  of  this  domestic  circle,  they 
might  easily  get  attached  to  the  Gospel  of  Luke, 
though  of  no  importance  whatever  as  any  his- 
torical proof. 

The  universal  belief  that  the  long-expected 
Messiah  was  soon  to  appear  led  every  mother  to 
ask,  "  Who  knows  but  that  my  child  may  be  the 
favored  one  of  God  ?"  A  young  woman,  named 
Mary,  had  been  espoused,  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
as  the  legends  of  the  Church  say,  to  a  man  much 
older  than  herself,  by  the  name  of  Joseph,  whose 
business  it  was,  as  Justin  Martyr  records,  to 
make  yokes  and  ploughs. 

In  those  days  espousal  was  in  fact  a  marriage. 
It  gave  the  rights  of  a  husband.  Separation 
could  be  effected  only  by  a  bill  of  divorce.  Thus 
the  law  recognized  this  as  a  legal  wedlock.  But 
though  the  parties  were  really  husband  and  wife, 
they  did  not  live  together  until  after  some  public 


46  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

ceremony  of  marriage.  The  phrase  that  de- 
scribed their  state  before  this  ceremony  is,  Trplv 
r)  avve\6ih,  that  is,  before  they  lived  together  (see 
Matthew  i.  18),  it  being  the  same  phrase  fonnd 
in  Acts  i.  6,  where  we  read,  when  the  disciples 
came  together,  and  in  many  other  Biblical  texts. 
It  is  true,  however,  that  it  sometimes  has  the 
secondary  meaning  of  cohabitatipn,  though  this 
is  not  its  uniform  signification. 

But  it  may  be  asked.  Did  not  Mary  say  dis- 
tinctly, in  Luke  i.  34,  "  I  know  not  a  man "  ? 
The  student  of  the  original  Greek  knows  that 
the  word  here  translated  man  is  uiSpa,  the  usual 
New  Testament  word  for  husband.  She  only 
denied  that  she  liad  a  publicly  recognized  hus- 
band. Accordingly  Olshausen  translates  the  sen- 
tence, "I  do  not  live  in  a  marriage  connection 
with  any  one." 

At  her  age  Mary  was  called  a  virgin,  TrapOivo^. 
The  exclusive  meaning  now  generally  attached 
to  that  word  is  modern.  Virgin  is  the  translation 
of  the  Hebrew  word  rrd^V-,  which  means  of  mar- 
riageable age.  (See  Gesenius'  Hebrew  Lexicon.) 
Thus  a  virgin  could  be  a  mother.  We  are 
told  in  Isaiah  vii.  14,  that  a  virgin  shall  be  a 


THE   TROBABLE    FACTS.  47 

mother.^     To    express    our  modern  idea  of    vir- 
ginity, other  phrases  were  used,  as  may  be  seen 

1  If  we  accept  the  common  interpretation  of  tlie  birth  of  Jesus, 
and  follow  literally  the  words  of  Scripture,  the  birth  referred  to 
in  Isaiah  vii.  14,  was  just  as  supernatural  and  miraculous  as  that 
of  Christ,  and  all  the  wonderful  sjjeculations  gathered  around  the 
latter  may  as  reasonably  cluster  around  the  former.  We  do  not 
forget  the  explanation  usually  resorted  to,  that  what  was  fore- 
told in  the  time  of  Jfhaz  h:ul  its  fullillment  at  the  time  of  Christ. 
But  in  regard  to  this  we  quote  the  sensible  words  of  Olshausen  : 
"  The  immediate  grammatical  sense  of  the  passage,  Isaiah  vii. 
14,  necessarily  requires  a  reference  to  something  present,  since 
the  irapdivos  who  was  to  bring  forth  Immanuel,  is  represented 
by  the  prophet  as  a  sign  to  Aliaz.  A  reference  to  the  Messiah 
born  of  a  virgin  centuries  afterwards,  ap]iears  to  answer  no 
end  whatever  for  the  immediate  circumstances.  It  is  most 
natural  to  suppose  that  by  irapdevos  is  meant  the  betrothed  of 
the  prophet  called  in  Isaiah  viii.  .3,  nS^3p,  as  being  his  wife. 
Tlapdhos,  equivalent  to  nS2bl7,  a  young  woman,  is  indeed  in 
itself  different  from  n^^nH!  which  necessarilv  denotes  pure 
virginity.  Looking  at  the  passage  free  from  prejudice,  one  is 
necessarily  led  to  expect  that  Ahnz  must  have  bad  something 
given  him  which  he  would  live  to  see.  It  is  very  forced  to  re- 
fer the  period  of  two  or  three  years  spoken  of,  to  the  coming 
of  the  iMessiah,  born  centuries  after."  If  one  asks,  what  was 
there  wonderful,  what  was  there  worthy  to  be  called  a  "sign,"  in 
a  young  woman's  bringing  forth  a  child,  we  find  an  answer  to 
this  question  in  Olshausen,  who  says  that  "  the  unity  of  refer- 
ence lies  in  the  name  Immanuel;  "  and  if  we  ask  further,  why 
did  St.  Matthew  refer  to  this  passage  in  Isaiah,  we  probably  find 
the  reason  in  the  fact  that  sometliing  took  place  which  could  be 


48  THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

in  Judges  xxi.  12,  Genesis  xxiv.  16.  So  also  in 
the  writings  of  the  Fathers,  not  indeed  uniformly, 
but  frequently,  those  women  ai"e  called  virgins  to 
whom,  in  its  modern  sense,  that  word  could  not 
be  applied.^ 

Who  can  paint  the  tender,  prophetic  thoughts 
which  that  young  mother  hardly  dared  Avhisper 
to  herself  ?  Only  those  can  do  it  who  can  recall 
the  emotions  of  the  first  consciousness  of  mater- 
described  in  those  old  prophetic  words,  for  now  a  young  woman 
hrouj^ht  forth  a  child  who  was,  in  a  sense  higher  even  than  in  the 
time  of  Ahaz,  a  revealer  of  God,  that  is,  an  Immaniiel.  In  7-egard 
to  the  sense  of  the  irapQivos  it  may  be  added  that  the  Fathers 
often  interpret  it  as  equivalent  to  our  English  word  bride.  This 
is  the  sense  the  word  must  have  in  I-iaiah  xlvii.  1.  So  in  Esther 
ii.  19,  we  see  that  the  king's  concubines  are  called  vin/ins.  In 
Joel  i.  8,  we  read  that  a  virgin  mourns  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band. 

1  Tertullian,  in  the  first  half  of  the  third  century,  applied  the 
word  virgins  to  those  who  lived  in  unlawful  cohabitation  with 
men.  In  the  sermons  of  St.  John  Chrysostom,  the  ipulieres 
snbintrodiictse  are  called  virgins.  In  the  letters  of  St.  Jerome, 
young  women  who  led  criminal  lives  are  called  virgins.  In  the 
Letters  of  St.  Leo,  pope  from  440  to  460,  young  married  women 
are  called  virgins.  In  all  these  cases  one  sense  of  this  word  was 
followed  which  had  been  established  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years,  for  Homer  calls  a  mother  of  two  brave  sons  a  "virgin." 
Iliiid,  lib.  ii.  line  .514;  and  Herodotus  speaks  of  certain  "  vir- 
gins "  who  presented  their  thank-offering  for  safe  delivery  in 
childbirth.     Book  iv.  chap.  34. 


THE   PROBABLE   FACTS.  49 

nity.  Was  Mary  to  be  a  mother?  But  she 
said  to  herself,  avSpa  ol  ytvwo-Kw,  which  Olshausen 
transUites,  "  I  do  not  live  in  a  marriage  connec- 
tion ;  "  and  therefore  it  is  too  soon  to  open  my 
heart  to  that  great  hope.  And  yet,  who  knows 
but  that  God  has  already  in  my  virtual  wedlock 
favored  me,  that  his  protecting  providence  will 
shelter  me,  and  that  even  I  may  be  the  chosen 
one  to  give  his  Messiah  to  the  w^orld,  so  that  to 
my  son  may  be  applied  the  words  recorded  in 
Psalm  Ixxxix.  4 ;  Isaiah  ix.  7,  and  Jeremiah 
xxxiii.  15?^ 

In  after  years  how  distinctly  she  recalled  the 
anxious  mental  debates  of  the  first  consciousness 
of  her  maternity,  she  who  from  her  espousal 
lived  in  holy  wedlock,  and  knew  not  one  of  those 
associations  of  impurity  which  the  grossness  of 
af tertimes  ascribed  to  that  state ;  she  who  set 
forth  in  her  own  simple  tuid  primitive  style  the 

1  The  fact  that  the  words  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  angel  who 
acUliessed  Mary  were  made  up  of  quotations  from  the  passages 
above  referred  to,  seems  a  further  indication  that  these  words 
were  not  uttered  by  a  celestial  personage,  in  our  modern  sense  of 
that  word ;  though  one  commentator  suggests  that  he  sees  no 
difficulty  in  the  idea  that  angels  may  quote  the  Old  Testament, 
and  carefully  read  the  Bible  "  to  learn  the  gracious  dispensations 
of  God." 

4 


50  THE   BIETH   OF   JESUS. 

dialogue  she  carried  on  with  herself,  representing 
every  good  persuasion  as  an  angel  coming  from 
the  very  chief  places  of  heaven,'  and  weaving 
finally  her  joy  into  song,  the  whole  composing  a 
beautiful  family  memoir,  which  St.  Luke  had 
procured  somewhere,  and  has  handed  down  to  us 
as  a  sweet  and  touching  picture,  though  it  was 
never  thought  of  as  any  documentary  proof  until 
subsequent  ages  had  misinterpreted  and  mis- 
used it. 

Joseph,  too,  was  not  expecting  that  his  wife 
would  so  soon  become  a  mother.  In  her  modesty, 
and  in  a  reserve  perhaps  the  greater  for  their  dis- 
parity of  years,  she  did  not  speak  to  him  of  her 
condition ;  time  would  reveal  it.  Accordingly 
the  expression  in  this  artless  history  is  evpedr). 
She  was  found  in  that  state  perhaps  on  some  re- 
turn after  a  few  weeks'  absence,  for  in  these  prim- 

^  This  conception  of  some  angels  as  coming  from  before  the 
face  of  God  is  Persian.  The  Zendauesta  i-efers  to  seven  spirits 
who  stand  nearest  the  throne.  After  the  Babylonian  captivity 
the  notion  found  its  way  into  currents  of  Jewish  thought.  Al- 
lusion is  made  to  it  in  various  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  written 
under  Chaldean  influence.  See  Zecliariah  vi.  5.  But  the  idea 
nowhere  appears  prior  to  the  time  of  that  influence.  Probaldy  it 
came  at  length  to  denote  those  impressions  which  were  most 
surely  divine. 


THE    PROBABLE    FACTS.  51 

itive  times  business  like  Joseph's  was  not  sta- 
tionary, but  was  carried  on  from  place  to  place. 

How  great  was  his  surprise  and  joy  !  In  after 
life  he  well  remembered  the  thoughts  he  had 
then  revolved.  It  had  seemed  too  great  a  bless- 
ing to  come  to  him.  He  had  dwelt  on  that  idea 
so  much  that  he  had  even  supposed  it  possible, 
that  Mary  had  been  unfaithful  to  him  !  Who 
can  describe  the  mingled  pathos  and  humor  with 
which  the  old  man  used  to  tell  the  story,  the 
smiles  of  surprise,  and  the  tears  of  gratitude,  that 
alternated  in  those  earliest  remembrances  of  that 
holy  child. 

Does  a  father's  heart  find  any  difficulty  in  inter- 
preting this  history,  if  he  will  not  overlay  it  with 
prodigies  that  take  it  out  of  the  sphere  of  all 
human  experience,  and  will  recognize  here  the 
action  of  that  one  dear  nature  which  is  common 
to  us  all  ?  And  so  Joseph  used  to  describe  bis 
foolish  suspicions,  and  to  tell  how  they  were  all 
allayed  by  the  angel  conviction  that  God's  good 
providence  was  in  all  this,  and  would  make  his 
son  a  light  and  blessing  to  the  world. 

And  then,  afterwards,  the  thought  came  to  him 
in  the  night,  in  view  of  the  dangers  that  beset 
the  life  of  his  child,  that  he  must  go  where  the 


52  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

hand  of  power  could  not  harm  it.  We  are  told 
that  he  was  Avarned  in  a  dream.  But  it  is  by  no 
means  necessary  to  suppose  that  this  was  an  im- 
pression made  upon  his  passive  mind  when  his 
senses  were  locked  in  slumber. 

The  word  dream  in  the  Hebrew  language  cov- 
ers all  deep  impressions  in  quiet  and  reflective 
hours.  Joseph  had  heard  much  of  the  character 
of  Hei-od.  It  made  him  anxious.  He  felt  that 
there  was  but  one  way  of  safety,  and  that  was 
flight.  That  was  borne  clear  and  strong  upon 
his  mind,  as  an  inspiration  from  God,  a  vision 
from  heaven,  as  it  may  have  been,  and  was  not 
the  less  likely  to  have  been  because  it  came  to 
him  when  his  senses  wei"e  awake.  And  here  was 
another  of  those  reminiscences  of  the  birth  and 
early  life  of  Jesus,  which  fond  parents  loved  to 
recall,  and  Avere  fittingly  treasured  as  family  tra- 
ditions, though  constituting  no  important  evi- 
dence of  the  divine  mission  of  their  son. 

Their  son,  we  repeat.  The  son  of  Joseph  as 
well  as  of  Mary.  So  Jesus  was  regarded  during 
his  life.  The  pedigree  of  Joseph  derived  all  its 
importance  from  the  fact  that  he  was  the  father 
of  Jesus.  Jesus  was  called  his  son  in  the  com- 
mon speech  of  his  day.     "Is  not  this  the   car- 


THE   PROBABLE   FACTS.  53 

penter's  son?  Is  not  his  mother  called  Mary?  " 
Matthew  xiii.  55.  "  And  they  said,  Is  not  this 
Joseph's  son  ?  "  Luke  iv.  22.  "  And  they  said,  Is 
not  this  Jesus,  the  son  of  Joseph,  whose  father 
and  mother  Ave  know?"  John  vi.  42.  "Philip 
findeth  Nathanael  and  saith  unto  him,  We  have 
found  him  of  whom  Moses  in  the  law,  and  the 
prophets,  did  write,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  son  of 
Joseph."     John  i.  45. 

Surely  Mary,  the  mother,  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  a  competent  witness  in  the  case,  and  she  said 
to  her  son,  when  she  found  him  sitting  with  the 
doctors  in  the  Temple,  "  Son,  why  hast  thou 
thus  dealt  with  us  ?  behold  thy  father  and  I 
have  sought  thee  sorrowing."     Luke  ii.  48. 

And  now,  in  surveying  the  exegesis  offered  in 
this  chapter,  as  also  that  submitted  in  the  chapter 
following,  no  doubt  every  reader  may  suggest 
other  interpretations  which,  without  the  supposi- 
tion of  a  miracle,  will  account  for  all  the  facts  re- 
corded in  the  texts  under  review.  It  is  an  im- 
portant consideration  that  so  many  explanations 
may  be  suggested.  The  greater  the  number  of 
possible  hypotheses  the  greater  the  incredibility 
of  the  astounding  traditions  of  past  ignorant  ages. 


54  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

Subsequent  pages  will  show  how  absolutely  un- 
founded these  traditions  are.  But  before  the  evi- 
dence of  this  is  submitted,  our  attention  may  be 
given  to  other  incidents,  connected  with  the  birth 
of  Jesus,  in  regard  to  which  the  imagination  has 
run  wild.  We  refer  to  the  stories  of  the  shep- 
herds and  the  Magi. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  SHEPHEEDS  AND  THE  MAGI. 

npHE  rejoicing  of  the  shepherds  that  watched 
their  flocks  by  night,  and  the  visit  of  the 
Magi,  are  two  other  beautiful  events  connected 
with  the  birth  of  Jesus,  and  we  will  now  try  to 
understand  what  they  were. 

We  must,  for  the  moment,  lay  aside  a  thousand 
poetic  associations  that  have  been  attached  to 
them,  for  such  associations  have  been  the  growth 
of  subsequent  ages,  —  the  expressions  of  grateful 
and  devout  hea,rts,  delighted  here  to  find  what  is 
wonderful,  and  pleased  just  in  proportion  as  the 
subject  is  lifted  up  into  regions  of  awe  and  poetic 
significance. 

No  words  can  be  necessary  to  show  that  these 
incidents,  whatever  they  were,  produced  but  little 
impression  at  the  time.  We  find  the  account  of 
the  shepherds  only  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke, 
and  throughout  the  sacred  canon  there  is  not  a 
hint  of  it,  in  sermon,  or  letter,  or  narrative,  by 


56  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

any  one  else.  St.  Luke  probably  found  tlie  story 
in  some  domestic  memoirs  or  tradition  of  the 
family  of  Mary,  and  appended  it  to  his  history. 

Even  in  the  family  of  Mary,  as  is  evident,  the 
story  left  no  abiding  impression.  St.  John  tells 
us  that  the  members  of  that  family  once  besought 
Jesus  to  manifest  himself  openly  to  the  world, 
and  he  adds,  "  For  neither  did  his  brethren  be- 
lieve in  him."  John  vii.  5.  At  another  time,  as 
St.  Mark  says,  his  friends  laid  hold  of  him,  "  for 
they  said,  He  is  beside  himself."  Mark  iii.  21. 
How  could  such  things  have  been  had  the  story 
of  the  shepherds  and  of  the  Magi  left  any  deep 
mark  in  the  memory  of  his  family  ? 

Probably  then,  in  some  incidental  and  almost 
unnoticed  occurrence,  we  shall  find  the  true 
origin  of  these  narratives,  —  some  little  by-act 
which  perhaps  Mary  alone  laid  up  in  her  heart, 
with  no  thought  that  it  would  be  the^  tiny  seed 
of  a  tree  whose  leaves  would  spread  over  the 
whole  earth. 

In  naming  a  possible  explanation,  one  exposes 
himself  to  the  derision  of  many  whose  minds 
have  long  been  settled  on  other  conclusions  which 
they  do  not  wish  to  have  disturbed.  The  new 
suggestion  has  a  show  of  presumption  in  the  out- 


THE  SHEPHERDS  AND  THE  MAGI.       57 

set,  as  if  it  could  weigli  anything  with  the  opin- 
ions of  all  the  world  in  the  other  scale.  But 
fair-minded  readers  will  cover  an  honest  inquiry 
with  no  such  odium.  Rather  will  they  consider 
with  candor  an  investigation  which  tries  to  go 
beneath  unreasoning  and  hazy  traditions,  and  to 
find  something  consistent  with  the  admitted  facts 
of  the  case. 

Much  that  is  said  about  poor,  humble,  sim- 
ple-hearted shepherds  comes  from  modern  life. 
Shepherds  near  Bethlehem,  eighteen  centuries 
ago,  were  not  what  shepherds  are  now.  The  care 
of  their  flocks  was  the  business  of  the  wealthiest 
and  most  intelligent  men.  They  were  generally 
devout  men,  for  such  was  the  common  type  of 
the  Hebrew  character ;  and  if  Bethlehem  was  re- 
garded as  the  predicted  birthplace  of  the  expect- 
ed Messiah,  the  shepherds  of  that  neighborhood 
might  hear  with  wonder  and  joy  of  the  birth  of 
every  infant  on  whom  their  great  hope  could  pos- 
sibly rest. 

Joseph  and  Mary  may  have  arrived  at  the 
home  of  some  men  who  divided  their  time  be- 
tween that  home  in  Bethlehem,  and  the  care  of 
their  flocks  by  night  on  the  neighboring  hills. 
The    utmost    uncertainty    exists,    as    everybody 


68  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

knows,  in  regard  to  the  precise  spot  where  Jesus 
was  born.  Some  tliink  it  was  a  cave  or  grotto 
where  cattle  were  kept,  and  both  Justin  Martyr 
and  Origen  say  that  this  was  the  uninterrupted 
tradition  of  Bethlehem ;  while  others  believe  that 
the  birth  took  place  in  the  lower  part  of  a  build- 
ing used  as  a  stable,  while  the  upper  stories  were 
for  human  habitation,  the  domestic  arrangement 
so  common  in  the  East. 

All  this  is  simply  conjecture.  It  is  of  more 
importance  to  observe  that  the  owners  of  the 
premises  which  Joseph  and  Mary  occupied  may 
have  been  their  friends.  There  is  an  old  church 
tradition  that  Andrew  was  one  of  the  shepherds, 
and  that  afterwards,  in  his  old  age,  he  became 
one  of  the  twelve.  It  may  have  been  with  him 
that  Joseph  and  Mary  stayed.  What  more  nat- 
ural than  that  her  youth,  and  a  beauty,  the  tra- 
ditions of  which  have  been  so  long  ^preserved, 
should  awaken  the  liveliest  interest  in  all  hearts  ? 

We  have  not  been  told  how  long  Mary  had 
been  in  Bethlehem  before  the  birth  of  her  child ; 
but  when  the  joyful  event  took  place,  and  her 
friends  on  the  hillsides  were  informed  of  it  by 
some  messenger,  coming  to  them  with  torches, 
and  reporting  the  birth  of  a  son,  in  the  favored 


THE  SHEPHERDS  AND  THE  MAGI.       59 

line  of  David,  who  possibly  might  fulfill  their 
hopes,  and  telling  them  that  if  they  would  go 
into  the  town  they  might  see  the  new-born  in  its 
lowly  abode,  how  natural  that  these  shepherds 
should  rejoice,  and  it  should  seem  to  them  as  if 
the  stars  of  heaven  were  shouting  sweet  words 
of  peace  and  good  will !  Have  there  been  no 
times  in  our  life  when  we  felt  as  if  a  thousand 
voices,  all  around,  syllabled  the  deep  emotions  of 
our  heart  ?  On  entering  Bethlehem  they  may 
have  spoken  of  their  feelings  to  the  delighted 
mother,  who,  as  we  read,  "  kept  all  these  things 
and  pondered  them  in  her  heart ; "  though  such 
relations  would  not  have  a  like  interest  to  any- 
body else. 

Neander  and  Schleiermacher  are  of  opinion  that 
this  little  episode  about  the  shepherds  was  some 
detached  memoir,  made  probably  by  the  shep- 
herds themselves.  Neander  says  :  "  The  facts 
may  be  supposed  to  have  been  as  follows :  in 
after  times  the  faithful  were  anxious  to  preserve 
the  minute  features  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  We  see 
every  day  how  anxiously  men  look  for  individual 
traits  in  the  childhood  of  great  men.  Especially 
would  any  one  who  had  opportunity  prosecute 
such  researches  in   the  remarkable  place  where 


60  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

Christ  was  born.  Perhaps  one  of  these  inquirers 
there  found  one  of  the  shepherds  who  had  wit- 
nessed these  events,  and  whose  memory  of  them 
was  vividl}'-  recalled  after  his  conversion  to  Chris- 
tianity. We  cannot  be  sure  that  such  a  man 
would  give,  with  literal  accuracy,  the  words  that 
he  had  heard."  ^ 

If  we  suppose  that  here  was  substantially  the 
whole  occurrence,  it  would  be  in  accordance  with 
the  then  style  of  expression  with  unlettered  He- 
brews, to  narrate  it  as  we  find  it  in  the  Gospel 
of  Luke.  If  we  see  an  air  of  naturalness  and 
truthfulness  in  this  narrative,  as  thus  explained, 
if  it  seems  that  the  common,  the  universal  feel- 
ings of  human  heai"ts  here  display  themselves, 
perhaps  we  shall  feel  a  confidence  in  the  truth  of 
this  history  which  we  cannot  have  in  the  prod- 
igies with  which  subsequent  ages  have  overlaid 
it. 

The  story  of  the  Magi  is  found  nowhere  ex- 
cept in  the  second  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  St. 
Matthew,  nor  is  there  the  least  allusion  to  it  in 
any  other  place  in  the  New  Testament.  How 
fruitful  it  has  been  of  wonderful  legends  and  fan- 
ciful speculations  in  all  past  ages  !  Before  sci- 
1  Neander's  Life  of  Christ,  Harjjer's  edit.,  p.  22. 


THE   SHEPHERDS   AND    THE   MAGI.  61 

ence  had  revealed  to  the  world  what  a  star  is  in 
our  solar  system,  popular  credulity  saw  no  diffi- 
culty in  believing  that  one  of  the  planets  of  the 
firmament  moved  along  just  above  the  heads  of 
these  men  from  the  East,  and  stood  over  the 
house  where  the  infant  Jesus  was  laid.  In  a  vast 
number  of  old  church  pictures  all  this  is  edify- 
ingly  represented. 

But  after  a  while  even  this  needed  some  addi- 
tional element  of  wonder  ;  and  so  Ignatius,  in  one 
of  his  epistles  says,  "  This  star  sparkled  brill- 
iantly beyond  all  other  stars,  while  the  other 
stars  with  the  sun  and  moon  formed  a  choir 
around  it,  but  its  blaze  outshone  them  all." 

Commentators  in  recent  times,  seeing  the  ab- 
surdity of  this,  have  contented  themselves  in  say- 
ing with  Schleiermacher,  "  We  may  well  leave  the 
statement  in  the  judicious  indefiniteness  in  which 
it  is  expressed  by  Matthew;"  or  with  Olshaus- 
en,  who  says  that  the  expression  that  the  star 
stood  over  the  house  "was  the  natural  concep- 
tion of  their  childish  feeling."  Every  boy  knows 
that  a  star  seems  to  move  when  he  moves,  and 
to  stop  when  he  stops. 

The  Magi  themselves  have  also  been  the  ob- 
jects of  many  wonderful  legends.     Tradition  says 


62  THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

there  were  three  of  them,  and  gives  their  names 
as  Caspar,  Melchior,  and  Balthazar.  It  was  said 
that  their  ages  were  respectively  sixty,  forty, 
and  twenty,  representing  three  important  epochs 
of  human  life.  It  was  said  again  that  they  came 
from  the  then  known  three  great  divisions  of  the 
globe,  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  to  signify  that 
the  whole  world  had  an  interest  in  that  infant. 

Accordingly  in  many  church  pictures  one  of 
them  is  a  black  man.  Raphael  followed  this 
tradition  in  his  famous  picture  of  the  "  Adoration 
of  the  Magi,"  in  the  Loggia  in  the  Vatican ;  and 
his  example  has  been  imitated  by  many  artists. 
Something  significant  was  found  in  the  gifts:  the 
gold  being  a  fit  present  to  a  king  such  as  Jesus 
was  to  be  ;  the  frankincense  was  suitable  for  the 
worship  which  was  everywhere  to  be  offered  in 
his  name;  and  the  myrrh  foretokened  the  em- 
balming of  his  body  given  for  tlie  world's  re- 
demption. An  old  Latin  hymn  sums  this  all  up 
as  follows  :  — 

"Aurea  nascenti  fiuleruiit  niunera  rcgi, 
Thura  dedere  Deo,  mvrrhamque  tribiiere  sepulto." 

In  the  old  world  paintings  the  Magi  are  some- 
times pictured  with  crowns  on  their  heads  ;  but 
more  frequently  they  are  represented  as  wearing 


THE  SHEPHERDS  AND  THE  MAGI.       63 

oriental  turbans.  Camels  and  elephants  are  oc- 
casionally introduced  as  hints  of  the  far  East. 
Cologne  boasts  of  the  honor  of  possessing  their 
bones  ;  and  one  of  the  penances  of  a  visit  to  that 
fragrant  city  is  the  hearing  an  old  cicerone  drawl 
out  the  story  of  the  translation  of  these  bones  to 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine. 

Should  it  be  asked,  How  was  it  that  those 
heathen  Magi  had  any  correct  ideas  of  the  future 
destiny  of  this  infant  ?  an  answer  was  always  near 
at  hand.  Of  course  it  was  said  that  they  were 
supernaturally  inspired.  Even  Olshausen  says, 
"  These  Magi  were  partly  inspired."  Kenrick, 
the  American  editor  of  Olshausen,  thinks  this  is 
hardly  enough,  and  adds  in  a  note,  "  That  the 
visit  of  these  Magi  was  accompanied,  perhaps, 
or  followed,  by  the  germs  of  a  sincere  faith,  can- 
not be  doubted."  The  "  perhaps  "  cannot  be 
doubted. 

And  then  we  read,  "  they  fell  down  and  wor- 
shipped him."  Behold  another  wonder.  These 
wise  men  from  the  East  worship  Jehovah  two 
weeks  old  !  But  even  Olshausen  was  shocked 
at  this,  and  adds,  "  We  must  not  by  any  means 
ascribe  to  the  Magi  any  doctrinal  ideas  of  the 
divinity  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but  only  a  dim  concep- 


64  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

tion  of  tlie  divine  power  accompanying  and  rest- 
ing on  him.  We  may  say  they  worshipped  God 
who  had  made  this  child  for  salvation  to  them 
also  ;  but  not  the  child." 

And  yet  the  expression  in  Matthew  is,  "  they 
worshi]3ped  Aim,"  the  child  ;  and  why  did  not 
Olshausen  say  that  the  original  is  Trpyo-eKi'fjyfrav, 
which  means  show  respect,  and  has  no  more  to  do 
witli  worship,  in  our  modern  sense  of  the  word, 
than  had  their  descending  from  their  camels  and 
elephants. 

After  this  glance  at  the  wonderful  mysteries 
and  legends  connected  with  St.  Matthew's  story, 
the  reader  will  think  it  a  great  downfall  to  the 
probable  facts  of  the  case,  in  which,  as  Neander 
says,  "  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  any 
miracle  was  wrought." 

A  company  of  merchants  carrying  with  them 
the  articles  in  common  traffic  between  the  East 
on  the  one  side,  and  Judea  and  Egypt  on  the 
other,  and  travelling,  as  was  common  in  that  hot 
country,  in  the  cool  of  the  evening,  noticed  a  star 
which,  from  the  clearness  of  the  air  or  some  as- 
pect of  the  planets,  they  had  never  seen  shine  so 
brilliantly.  In  that  age  every  unusual  sight  was 
a  sign  of  something.     What  did  that  star  mean  ? 


THE  SHEPHERDS  AND  THE  MAGI.       65 

Passing  near  Bethleliem,  some  rumor,  perhaps 
from  the  shepherds  before  named,  of  the  birth  of 
Mary's  son,  who,  as  they  were  told,  might  be 
king  of  the  Jews,  reached  their  ears.  Here,  then, 
was  the  meaning  of  the  star.  If  the  Jews  were 
to  have  a  new  king  they  would  do  homage  to 
him,  to  propitiate  his  future  protection.  That 
the  star  was  no  guide  to  them  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that,  on  arriving  at  Jerusalem,  they  had  to 
ask  where  the  birth  of  the  new  king  took  place, 
—  an  inquiry  which  naturally  awakened  great 
surprise  at  Herod's  court. 

Starting  on  their  way  to  Bethlehem,  they  were 
rejoiced  to  see  that  same  planet  shining  clearly 
in  the  heavens,  which,  as  they  doubted  not,  was 
"  his  star,"  the  star  of  the  infant  king.  In  their 
compliments  to  the  mother  they  named  the  in- 
cident of  the  star,  which  little  story  she  remem- 
bered, and  treasured  among  her  domestic  tradi- 
tions ;  but  it  was  altogether  too  unimportant  for 
use  with  anybody  else. 

Looking  back  now  upon  all  these  narratives, 

and  tracing  them  to  their  probable  humble  origin, 

we  would  ask.  Do  we  destroy  their  significance  ? 

We  know  that  many  will  think  we  do,  and  will 

5 


66  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

add,  that  we  eviscerate  tbe  Gospels,  strip  them 
of  their  divine  element,  and  reduce  everything 
to  the  plane  of  naturalism. 

But  we  think  tliat  the  plane  of  naturalism  is 
God's  plane,  and  it  does  not  seem  less  divine  be- 
cause it  is  natural.  In  these  simple  events  we 
think  we  may  see  the  divine  hand  quite  as  plainly 
as  in  the  sun  and  moon  circling  round  a  cradle 
in  Bethlehem.  Is  it  not  possible  to  believe  these 
natural  incidents  with  a  depth  and  sincerity  of 
faith  that  cannot  be  accorded  to  this  last  named 
legend,  nor  to  anything  like  it  ? 

Who  is  prepared  to  take  the  ground  that  a 
lowly  origin  diminishes  the  importance  of  a  grand 
result?  The  heavenly  poem  of  the  birth  of 
Jesus,  sung  all  the  world  over,  is  it  not  a  heav- 
enly poem  still,  even  if  we  know  out  of  what 
simple  elements  it  took  its  rise  ?  If  Dante's  "  Di- 
vina  Commedia"  originated,  as  Florentine  tradi- 
tion says,  in  some  spite  against  that  city,  is  it  not 
the  majestic  and  wonderful  poem  of  the  ages  for 
all  that  ?  If  John  Robinson  and  Elder  Brewster 
got  up  the  expedition  to  America  through  some 
petty  misunderstanding  with  a  church  in  Leyden, 
is  not  the  settlement  of  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims 
a  grand  event  in  history  for  all  that  ?     May  not 


THE  SHEPHERDS  AND  THE  MAGI.       67 

God's  gracious  and  benignant  providence  come 
into  connection  witli  human  events  at  any  stage 
of  their  progress,  and  in  the  way  He  shall  judge 
best  ?  Have  we  a  right  to  ask  that  the  moment 
of  his  contact  with  them  shall  be  signalized  by 
such  prodigies  as  to  our  poor  eyes  may  seem  most 
fitting  ? 

There  has  been  by  no  means  a  unity  of  opinion 
as  to  the  precise  time  when  the  divine  first  min- 
gled with  the  human  element  in  Jesus.  Some 
have  named  the  moment  of  his  baptism,  as  did 
Cerinthus  and  Basilides,  and  Tlieodotus  of  By- 
zantium ;  some,  that  of  his  birth;  some,  that  of 
the  salutation  of  Mary  and  Elizabeth  ;  some,  that 
of  his  resurrection  ;  and  some,  apparently  to  shut 
off  all  curiosity  on  this  point,  have  held  to  an 
"  eternal  generation,"  whatever  that  may  mean. 
Adam  Clarke  appears  to  know  more  about  tliis 
matter  than  any  one  else,  for  he  says,  in  his 
"  Commentary,"  that  he  is  "  firmly  established 
in  tlie  opinion  that  the  rudiments  of  the  human 
nature  of  Christ  were  a  real  creation  in  the  womb 
of  the  virgin,"  and  that  Jesus  was  there  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Amid  all  tliis  diversity  of  opinion  on  a  subject 
where  it  is  the  height  of  folly  to  pretend  to  know 


68  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

anything,  is  it  not  better  to  abide  by  the  plain 
words  of  Scripture,  which  tell  us  that  Jesus  was 
born  like  a  human  being,  from  a  natural  father 
and  motlier,  that  he  grew  up  like  other  children, 
"increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favor 
with  God  and  man,"  and  received  in  some  period 
of  his  life,  we  know  not  when  or  how,  but  in  har- 
mony with  the  normal  action  of  his  own  mental 
and  spiritual  nature,  tliat  spirit  which  was  given 
to  him  "  without  measure,"  and  by  which  he  be- 
came fitted  for  the  service  he  rendered  to  man- 
kind? 

But  it  may  be  said  that  this  bald  and  belittling 
exegesis  does  not  at  all  meet  the  sympathies  of 
the  universal  human  heart,  and  the  most  obvious 
aspects  of  the  case.  This  may  be  admitted.  But 
the  inquiry  is  still  open  whether  these  "  sym- 
pathies "  be  well  founded,  and  whether  the 
"  obvious  aspect "  is  not  made  such  by  tradition. 
Our  object  has  not  been  to  find  ^something  that 
will  fill  the  measure  of  wonder  that  has  been  en- 
larged through  long  ages  of  ignorance  and  credu- 
lity, but  humbly  to  suggest  a  possible  explana- 
tion of  facts  which,  at  the  time,  were  regarded 
as  very  simple  and  not  of  great  importance,  but 
which  have  since  been  clothed  with  the  sublimest 
significance. 


THE  SHEPHERDS  AND  THE  MAGI.       69 

Nor  let  any  one  regard  it  as  a  strange  thing 
that  such  wonderful  interpretations  should  have 
been  put  upon  the  records  of  Christ's  birth.  In 
past  ages  men  had  no  other  way  of  marking 
their  sense  of  something  extraordinary  in  any 
one,  tlian  by  the  description  of  extraoixlinarj'^ 
portents.  Thus  both  Isaac  and  John  the  Baptist 
were  said  to  be  miraculously  conceived.  The 
Indian  Buddha,  it  was  believed,  was  born  of  the 
virgin  iMaia.  Foh,  the  god  of  the  Chinese,  and 
Shaka,  the  god  of  Thibet,  were  born,  of  virgins. 
Romulus,  it  was  said,  had  a  human  mother,  and  a 
god  for  his  father.  Plato  was  begotten  by  Apollo. 
Hercules  was  a  son  of  Jupiter.  The  mother  of 
Alexander  the  Great  saw  in  her  sleep,  just  before 
the  birth  of  her  son,  a  thunderbolt  fall  upon  her 
body.  The  mother  of  Pericles  dreamed  that  she 
was  to  give  birth  to  a  lion.  Here  are  but  a  few 
examples  of  natal  prodigies. 

All  this  is  popular  language,  to  express,  in 
the  absence  of  abstract  terms  and  nicely  shaded 
meanings,  the  idea  of  something  wonderful.  Had 
the  career  of  Washington  fallen  into  the  world's 
history  centuries  ago,  we  inight  have  had  stories 
that  the  chamber  of  his  birth  was  illuminated 
with  a  preternatural  light.     But  we  can  describe 


70  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

his  greatness  without  tlie  aid  of  prodigy.  Prodigy 
would  not  make  liis  patriotism,  and  wisdom,  and 
disinterestedness  seem  any  greater.  We  judge 
him  by  his  life.  So  the  life  of  Jesus  describes 
him  to  us,  and  stamps  him  as  the  Son  of  God 
and  Saviour  of  the  world. 

And  the  simple  story  of  his  life  may  give  us  a 
far  higher  idea  of  him  than  is  necessarily  implied 
by  all  the  wonders  and  prodigies  attributed  to  his 
birth.  We  see  that  he  who  was  first  regarded 
merely  as  the  king  of  Israel  has  become  the 
Guide  and  Consoler  of  humanity ;  and  they  who 
dwelt  so  much  on  the  fact  of  the  resurrection  of 
his  body  knew  little  of  the  power  of  that  word 
which  would  in  time  roll  away  the  stone  from 
every  sejDulchre  in  the  world. 

"  Jfeus  a  6t6  le  Messie  et  a  vaincu  la  mort  dans 
un  sens  bien  plus  reel  que  celui  auquel  s'etaient 
attach($s  les  premiers  chr^tiens.  Ceux-ci  ne  voy- 
aient  en  lui  que  le  roi  d'Israel,  et  il  est  devenu 
le  sauveur  et  le  consolateur  des'  hommes.  lis 
s'arretaient  a  la  r(^surrection  du  corps,  et  ils 
n'avaient  aucune  idee  de  la  puissance  avec  la- 
quelle  la  parole  de  leur  maitre  allait  briser  la 
pierre  au  sepulchre  pour  se  repandre  sur  la  face 
du  monde."  ^ 

1  Scherer,  Mda-iges  d'Histoire  RfU^ieuse. 


THE   SHEPHERDS   AND   THE   MAGI.  71 

But  God's  plan,  as  unfolded  in  the  sublime 
march  of  centuries,  is  often  misunderstood  and 
misrepresented  by  the  philosophy  or  passions  of 
a  particular  age  ;  and  we  must  now  see  what 
theories  the  age  succeeding  that  of  the  apostles 
invented. 


CHAPTER  V. 

AFTER   THEORIES. 

T  F  we  have  suggested  a  probable  explanation  of 
the  account  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  the  question 
will  naturally  arise,  How  came  it  to  be  so  mis- 
represented ?  In  what  way  was  a  knowledge  of 
his  natural  birth  lost  to  the  world  ?  In  what  way 
came  the  history  to  be  enveloped  with  the  prod- 
igies which  are  still  believed  ? 

At  the  end  of  a  preceding  chapter  it  was  said 
that  we  all  know  how,  and  when,  and  where  this 
misinterpretation  of  the  record  took  place :  and 
it  is  our  purpose  now  to  show  this.  The  sub- 
ject requires  some  details  of  ecclesiastical  history. 
Remembering  how  tedious  these  are  to  most 
readers,  we  shall  select  only  a*  few  of  the  most 
interesting  points,  and  shall  dismiss  them  with 
all  the  brevity  compatible  with  a  clear  statement 
of  the  case. 

No  one  can  give  even  a  brief  glance  into  the 
history  of  the  early  ages  of  the  Christian  Church 


AFTER   THEORIES.  73 

without  seeing  that  there  were  causes  then  at 
work  to  lead  to  new  and  high  strained  theories 
about  the  person  of  Christ,  and  as  a  consequence 
to  ascribe  peculiar  honor  to  his  mother. 

1.  The  first  was  what  was  called  the  offense  of 
the  cross.  That  the  founder  of  their  religion  had 
suffered  an  ignominious  death  was  perpetually 
thrown  into  the  face  of  the  first  Christians.  It 
had  been  cast  as  a  reproach  to  St.  Paul ;  but  St. 
Paul  did  not  attempt  to  evade  or  mitigate  the 
charge.  No  high-sounding  words,  such  as  soon 
came  into  fashion,  did  he  use  to  cover  up  the 
odium  of  the  cross,  or  to  give  a  factitious  splen- 
dor to  the  sacrifice  there  made.  With  him  it  was 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  "  made  of  a  woman,"  Gala- 
tians  iv.  4;  "the  man  Christ  Jesus,"  1  Timothy 
ii.  5,  who  suffered  in  our  behalf;  and  he  gloried 
in  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  determined  to  "  know 
nothing  but  Jesus  and  him  crucified." 

Would  that  his  successors  had  done  so!  But 
they  set  to  work  to  blunt  the  edge  of  this  charge 
by  their  representations  of  the  person  of  him 
who  was  crucified.  The  greater  his  dignity,  the 
more  the  cross  was  invested  with  interest.  This 
was  their  reasoning ;  but  it  only  showed  their  in- 
ability to  penetrate  to  the  true  greatness  of  Christ. 


74  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

That  a  superhuman  being  could  meet  death 
with  cahn  self-sacrifice,  was  not  the  fact  that  cov- 
ered the  cross  with  its  transcendent  glory.  The 
spiritual  significance  of  the  cross  lies  in  the  truth 
that  human  weakness  there  found  an  almighty 
strength  and  support.  Accordingly  St.  Paul 
knew  nothing  but  Jesus  and  him  crucified.  But 
some  of  his  successors  knew  a  great  deal  more 
than  that.  It  is  not  long  before  we  find  the  ex- 
pressions. God  himself  suffered,  God  liimself  was 
cracified,  God  himself  died.  Texts  of  Scripture 
were  strangely  perverted  to  give  a  color  to  these 
astounding  representations,  which  found  somg 
support  in  Indian  incarnations,  and  Olympian 
mythology. 

If  Jesus  were  God,  how  could  mortal  par- 
ents give  him  birth  ?  The  exigency  demanded 
some  other  explanation.  These  artless  narratives 
that  took  their  shape  from  peculiarities  of  He- 
brew phraseolog3%  invited  mystic  interpretations. 
These  led  to  the  ascription  to  Mary  of  a  super- 
human relation.  She  became  the  Queen  of 
Heaven  and  the  object  of  prayer. 

2.  The  transference  of  Christianity  to  lands 
where  the  real  meaning  of  its  birth-phrases  was 
little  understood  helped  on   this  tendency.     The 


AFTER   THEORIES.  75 

•1 

overthrow  of  Jerusalem  in  the  year  70,  after  one 
of  the  most  awful  sieges  recorded  in  history, 
drove  away  the  Christian  Church  from  "  the 
mother  of  us  all,"  and  foreign  cities  became  the 
centres  from  which  the  Gospel  radiated. 

Who  of  us  has  adequately  considered  what 
must  have  been  the  natural  effect  of  taking  the 
religion  from  its  cradle,  from  the  habits  of 
thought  and  expression  where  it  had  its  rise,  and 
planting  it  under  new  skies,  and  amid  foreign 
tendencies  and  customs  and  speech  ?  It  was  ia- 
evitable  that  other  elements  should  mingle  with 
it,  and  that  it  should  receive  a  deep  impress  from 
the  place  to  which  it  was  transferred. 

The  point  is  so  obvious  that  it  hardly  needs 
illustration  ;  but  if  we  suppose  that  a  new  sys- 
tem of  philosophy  should  spring  up  in  Boston, 
and  should  be  set  foi-th,  not  in  the  language  of 
the  learned,  but  in  the  common  phrases,  the 
idioms,  the  proverbs,  the  traditional  expressions 
peculiar  to  New  England,  who  does  not  see  that, 
if  it  should  be  transplanted  to  another  land,  and 
other  people,  a  thousand  miles  distant,  it  would 
naturally  be  interpreted  by  the  speech,  the  spirit, 
the  traditions  of  the  new  place,  and  Avould  neces- 
sarily be  set  forth  in  a  light  different 'in  many 


76  T^E   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

respects  from  what  it  had  in  Boston  ?  We  must 
interpret  history  by  what  we  know  of  human 
nature,  and  of  the  inevitable  effect  of  diverse 
ideas  and  culture. 

It  is  of  much  interest  in  this  connection  to 
mark  the  fact  that  -the  farther  the  Gospel  trav- 
eled from  the  influence  of  its  home,  the  more  its 
records  were  misunderstood.  The  great  names 
in  Church  history  which  have  made  Antioch, 
Cappadocia,  Ephesus,  Constantinople,  so  cele- 
bi'ated,  were  arrayed  against  the  wild  specula- 
tions to  which  Alexandria  in  Egypt  gave  birth. 
Mosheim,  in  his  "  Historical  Commentaries  on 
the  State  of  Christianity  during  the  first  Three 
Hundred  and  Twenty-five  Years  of  the  Christian 
Era,"  says,  "  Nearly  all  those  corruptions  by 
which,  in  the  second  and  subsequent  centuries, 
Christianity  was  disfigured,  and  its  pristine  sim- 
plicity and  innocence  were  almost  wholly  de- 
faced, had  their  origin  in  Egypt,  and  were  thence 
communicated  to  other  churches."  ^ 

Let  us  mark,  also,  another  suggestive  fact, 
namely,  that  on  the  subject  of  the  person  of 
Christ  the  fundamental  difference  between  the 
northern  and  southern  side  of  the  Mediterranean 

^  Murdock's  Mosheim,  vol.  i.,  p.  369. 


AFTER   THEORIES.  77 

was,  as  is  stated  in  the  words  of  Neander,  that 
the  latter  believed  that  "  God  became  a  man, 
while  the  former  believed  that  God  exerted  an 
influence  on  a  man."  The  profound  significance 
of  this  discrimination  will  arrest  the  attention  of 
the  reader,  1  •    . 

Neander  proceeds  still  farther  to  define  the 
theological  speculations  of  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries,  by  saying  that  it  was  the  aim  of  the 
Syrian  divines  to  find  "  in  the  union  of  God  with 
man  in  Christ  something  analogous  to  the  re- 
lation of  God  to  rational  beings  generally ;  to  find 
a  point  of  comparison  between  the  being  of  God 
in  Christ  and  the  being  of   God  in  believers  ;  " 

1  See  Neander,  Boston  edition,  vol.  ii,,  p.  435.  Dupin  had 
before  pointed  out  the  same  difference  between  the  Syrian  and 
Egyptiiin  chnrches.  He  says  :  "  Les  Orieutaux  se  sont  toujours 
plus  appliques  a  marquer  la  distinction  des  deux  natures  en 
Jesus-Christ  que  leur  intime  union,  au  lieu  que  les  Egyptiens  se 
sont  plus  attaches  a  parler  de  leur  union  que  de  leur  distinction." 
French  edition,  vol.  ii.,  p.  28. 

While  this  book  has  been  under  pi'cparation  I  have  used  both 
the  orio-inal  French  edition  of  Dupin,  entitlfd  Nouvelle  BibUo- 
theqiie  des  Auteurs  Ecdesiastiques,  Mons,  1681,  and  an  English 
translation  published  in  London,  1692.  My  quotations  in  French 
are  from  the  former;  when  in  English  they  are  from  the  latter 
work.  I  have  great  respect  for  the  candor  of  Dupin.  He  was 
of  the  Komish  Church,  and  wrote  loifg  prior  to  the  controversies 
which  at  the  present  time  bias  our  minds. 


78  THE   BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

while,  on  the  other  hand,  as  he  adds,  "  the  supra- 
rational  and  supernatural  was  precisely  that  for 
which  the  Alexandrian  theology  chiefly  insisted. 
The  ineffable,  incomprehensible,  transcendent 
mystery  consisted  in  this  very  thing,  that  divine 
omniscience  and  human  ignorance,  human  sensi- 
bility and  suffering  and  divine  exemption  from 
suffering,  and  in  general  divine  and  human  at- 
tributes, coexisted  in  one  and  the  same  Christ." 
Vol.  ii.,  p.  445. 

If  we  think  that  this  was  equivalent  to  saying 
that  a  square  and  a  circle  have  the  same  form, 
we  can  hardly  be  surprised  that  here  in  Alex- 
andria should  be  coined  the  expression  which 
made  such  a  strife  in  those  ages,  that  the  Virgin 
Mary  was  ^€ord/<o9,  that  is,  the  Mother  of  God. 

Mary,  the  Mother  of  God  ?  Who  can  imagine 
that  such  an  expression  should  be  found  in  the 
writings  of  the  apostles  ?  It  is  evident  that 
they  felt  no  special  interest  in  her  ;  not  indeed 
so  much  as  v;e  might  think  they  should  have 
felt.  After  Jesus  on  the  cross  had  commended 
her  to  the  care  of  John,  and  the  beloved  dis- 
ciple had  taken  her,  as  we  are  told  in  John  xix. 
27,  "  to  his  own  home,"  not  one  word  is  said  of 
her  in  the  Gospels,  nor  in  the  sermons  of   the 


AFTER   THEORIES.  79 

first  preachers  of  Christianity,  nor  in  the  epistles 
that  were  sent  to  the  churches.  The  one  only 
place  where  she  is  even  named  is  in  the  list  of 
believers  in  Christ  that  assembled  in  the  upper 
room  after  his  crucifixion,  and  here  she  is  named 
as  "  the  mother  of  Jesus,"  and  is  included  "  with 
the  women."     Acts  i.  14. 

We  have  other  most  interesting  and  precious 
remains  of  the  first  followers  of  Jesus.  I  refer 
to  the  Roman  catacombs.  Every  one  knows  the 
story  about  them.  Those  dismal  subterranean 
abodes  to  which  the  persecuted  Christians  fled, 
where  they  lived  till  the  time  of  peril  had  passed, 
where  they  buried  their  dead,  and  rudelj^  carved 
many  Christian  emblems,  show  us  who  and  what 
were  the  historical  figures  of  chief  interest  to 
those  who  had  been  driven  to  "  dens  and  caves  of 
the  earth." 

There  they  engraved  the  form  of  Christ  as  the 
Good  Shepherd,  and  the  fish,  the  Greek  word  of 
which,  Ix^v-;,  contained  the  initials  so  dear  to 
them  (Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God,  Saviour),  and 
the  anchor,  emblem  of  their  hope  and  trust, 
and  the  ship,  which  represented  the  Church,  to 
bear  them  safelj^  over  all  the  storms  of  life. 
Thousands  of  these  inscriptions  have  been  care- 


80  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

fully  removed  from  the  dark  and  damp  cata- 
combs, and  are  now  inserted  in  the  walls  of  a 
long  corridor  in  the  Vatican,  and  few  objects  in 
Rome  are  more  interesting  than  the  "  Lapidary 
Gallery." 

But  no  image  of  Mary  is  there.  Pictures  of 
the  Virgin  and  Child  are  of  far  later  date.  The 
effigies  of  some  Christian  matron,  found  on  sar- 
cophagi and  in  the  catacombs,  have  been  claimed 
by  papists  as  representations  of  the  mother  of 
Jesus  ;  but  in  the  light  of  the  ecclesiastical  lit- 
erature of  the  first  centuries,  the  claim  is  pre- 
posterous. Not  before  the  fifth  century  did  art 
multiply  images  of  the  Virgin  and  Child.^ 
There  is  reason  to  think  that  such  images  orig- 
inated in  Egypt,  as  in  some  of  the  oldest  statues 
of  the  virgin  she  is  represented  as  being  black, 
in  imitation,  as  is  supposed,  of  the  black  Egyp- 
tian Isis,  who,  before  the  times  of  Christianity, 
was  worshiped  as  nursing  a  child.  What  would 
those  devout  souls  of  the  catacombs  have  thought 
of  the  expression,  Mary  the  Mother  of  God,  the 
Queen  of  Heaven,  the  proper  object  of  prayer  ? 

^  Maitland,  in  his  Church  in  the  Catacombs,  says  :  "  It  is  a  fact 
notorious  to  every  one  conversant  with  ecclesiastical  history,  that 
the  Virgin  Mary  was  scarcely  noticed  in  writings,  paintings,  or 
Bculptures,  till  late  in  the  fourth  century."    Page  332. 


AFTER   THEORIES.  81 

Let  US  ask  a  still  more  interesting  question, 
What  would  the  first  Christians  in  the  mother 
Church  at  Jerusalem  have  thought  of  this  ?  We 
are  not  without  means  of  answering  that  ques- 
tion. Though  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  drove 
the  Christian  Church  to  make  settlements  in  for- 
eign cities,  it  did  not  expel  from  Judea  all  the 
folloAvers  of  Christ.  A  body  of  them  remained. 
A  little  town  beyond  the  Jordan,  called  Pella, 
received  many  of  them  ;  and  they  and  their  scat- 
tered brethren  were  known  under  the  name  of 
Ebionites,  from  the  fact  of  their  poverty,  the 
Hebrew  word  ^I'^iiS,  Eboon^  meaning  poor.  What 
chiefly  distinguished  them  was  their  belief  that 
the  Mosaic  system  had  not  been  entirely  abro- 
gated by  Christ,  many  rites  of  which  they  con- 
tinued to  observe.  Hence  they  were  sometimes 
called  Judaizers,  and  were  classed  as  heretics. 

It  seems  not  improbable  that  they  might  know 
far  better  than  the  Alexandrian  mystics  what 
the  gospel  account  of  Christ's  birth  really  meant. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  certain  that  they  did  not  be- 
heve  in  his  miraculous  conception  as  it  was  in- 
terpreted in  Egypt,  and  continues  to  be  inter- 
preted to  this  day.  They  had  a  Hebrew  copy 
of  the  Gospel,  in  which  the  family  memoirs  of 


»1J  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

Zacharias,  and  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  were  left 
out.  The  fact  which  we  have  here  signalized, 
namely,  that  they  did  not  believe  in  the  super- 
natural birth  of  Jesus,  but  accounted  him  as  the 
son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  is  admitted  by  all  ec- 
clesiastical historians  :  and  the  significance  of  this 
fact  will  not  escape  the  notice  of  any  attentive 
reader.^ 

3.  The  prevalence  of  the  Manichean  philosophy 
was  another  cause  that  aided  the  dogma  of  the 
miraculous  birth  of  Christ.  This  was  a  branch 
of  that  Gnostic  system  which  ascribed  all  evil  to 
m.atter.  Spirit  and  matter  were  regarded  as  the 
two  antagonistic  principles  of  the  universe.     Sin 

1  Hagenbach  says  in  his  Hislori/  of  Doctrines,  vol.  i.,  p.  180, 
that  some  of  the  Ebionites  believed  that  a  higher  power  rested  on 
Christ  which  made  him  rank  with  Adam,  Enoch,  and  Moses, 
and  this  was  the  highcsit  conception  tliat  they  had  of  him.  j\Ios- 
lieini's  words  are  as  follows:  "Although  thty  [the  Ebionites] 
held  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  in  great  veneration  as  a  divine 
legate  or  pro])hct,  tiiey  wonld  not  admit  that  any  miraculous  cir- 
cumstances attended  his  birth,  but  maintained  that  he  was  the 
natural  son  of  Joseph,  begotten  according  to  that  law  by  which 
all  other  mortals  are  produced."        ' 

Milman  says  that  the  Ebionites  not  only  maintained  that  Christ 
was  born  in  the  natural  way,  but  affirmed  that  such  was  "  the 
unbroken  tradition  of  the  Church  from  the  apostles  to  their  own 
day."     See  Latin  Christianity,  vol.  i.,  ]).  40. 


AFTER   THEORIES.  83 

had  a  self-subsistent  existence  in  matter.  As 
man  is  allied  to  matter  by  liis  body,  he  will  find 
his  perfection  only  by  mortifying,  starving,  and 
scourging  it.  Here  was  the  origin  both  of  monk- 
ish asceticism,  and  of  that  dualism,  God  and  Nat- 
ure, which  has  been  transmitted  down  to  our  day. 
Under  this  system  it  became  a  necessity  to  show 
that  Christ's  sinlessness  came  from  the  fact  that 
he  had  no  connection  with  matter. 

Never  was  the  force  of  theory  more  signally 
illustrated.  Some,  like  the  Docetaj,  taught  that 
Christ  had  a  body  only  in  appearance.  Only  a 
phantom  had  been  born  and  crucified.  It  had 
none  of  the  substance  of  which  our  bodies  are 
composed.  It  was  incapable  alike  of  sin  and  of 
suffering.  It  was  against  this  opinion  that  St. 
John  leveled  some  of  his  most  pointed  sentences, 
condemning  tliose  who  had  denied  that  Christ 
had  come  in  the  flesh,  and  calling  such  antichrist. 
See  1  John  iv.  3. 

Others  maintained  that  Christ  had  a  real  body, 
but  it  was  not  composed  of  common  fleshly  mat- 
ter ;  it  was  not  derived  from  Mary ;  it  was  fash- 
ioned from  subtle  and  celestial  materials  ;  it  was 
put  together  in  heaven,  according  to  the  belief  of 
Marcion ;   and    it    passed    through    the   body    of 


84  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

Maiy,  as  the  Bardesanists  maintained,  as  a  beam 
of  light  passes  through  glass,  or  as  water  passes 
through  a  pipe.  The  fourth  and  fifth  centuries 
abounded  with  edifying  speculations  of  this  kind, 
and  all  these  served  still  more  to  shape  a  theology 
which  removed  Jesus  from  any  natural  alliance 
with  humanity. 

4.  A  fourth  cause  which  contributed  to  this 
result  was  certain  metaphysical  speculations  as  to 
the  origin  of  souls.  A  subject  of  which  a  human 
being  has  no  knowledge,  and  can  have  none  ex- 
cept by  express  revelation,  was  then  treated  as  if 
it  were  all  as  well  understood  as  the  pedigree  of 
one's  father,  and  as  if  there  must  be  something 
culpable  in  dissent. 

The  historian  Gibbon,  in  a  note  to  his  forty- 
seventh  chapter,  enumerates  the  four  different 
opinions  that  have  prevailed  :  1.  That  souls  are 
eternal  and  divine.  2.  That  they  ai-e  created  in 
a  separate  state  of  existence  before  their  union 
with  the  body.  3.  That  each  soul  is  created  and 
embodied  in  the  moment  of  conception.  4,  That 
souls  are  propagated  frorti  the  original  stock  of 
Adam,  who  contained  in  himself  the  spiritual  as 
well  as  the  corporeal  seed  of  his  posterity. 

This  last  opinion  took  root  in  the  age  we  are 


AFTER   THEORIES.  85 

now  considering.  Neander  gives  TertuUian  the 
honor  of  its  paternity,  and  refers  to  him  as  that 
"  great  church  teacher  who  in  many  respects 
may  be  regarded  as  the  forerunner  of  Augus- 
tine ;  "  and  he  adds  that  it  was  Tertullian's  be- 
hef  "  that  our  first  parent  bore  within  him  the 
undeveloped  germ  of  all  mankind;  that  the  soul 
of  the  first  man  was  the  fountain-head  of  all  hu- 
man souls,  and  that  all  the  varieties  of  individual 
human  nature  are  but  different  manifestations  of 
that  one  spiritual  ■  substance.  Hence  the  whole 
race  became  corrupted  in  its  original  father,  and 
sinfulness  is  propagated  at  the  same  time  with 
souls."  1 

Even  if  there  be  the  least  plausibility  in  this 
hypothesis,  still  it  might  be  asked  how  was  Christ 
free  from  all  hereditary  taint  if  he  derived  his 
being  through  a  human  mother  ?  And  here  came 
in  another  assumption.  It  was  maintained  that 
the  generative  power  belongs  exclusively  to  the 
father,  the  mother  having  only  a  subordinate  part 
in  the  production  of  children.  See  Lecky's  "  His- 
tory of  Morals,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  296,  who  says  that  we 
find  this  notion  also  among  the  old  Greek  writers, 
for  Euripides  puts  it  into  the  mouth  of  Ajaollo  in 
1  Neander,  vol.  1.,  p.  615. 


86  THE   BIRTH    OF  JESUS. 

tlie  "  Eumenides."  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  believed 
it,  and  hence  argued  that  we  ought  to  love  our 
fathers  more  than  our  mothers.  But  human  af- 
fections do  not  always  obey  this  logic. 

Reasoning  then  precisely  as  some  theologians 
reason  still,  it  was  contended  that  if  Jesus  had 
been  a  son  of  Joseph  he  would  have  inherited  the 
sin  of  Adam.  In  all  the  resources  of  omnipotence 
God  had  no  other  way  of  cutting  ofp  that  sinful 
connection  except  by  preventing  Joseph's  cooper- 
ation. This  was  arguing  in  rather  a  high  strain, 
and  assuming  to  know  much  about  the  resources 
of  omnijDotence.  But  it  answered  its  purpose, 
and  we  shall  see  that  some  theologians  talk  in  the 
same  style  now. 

Some  of  the  Schoolmen  framed  another  ingen- 
ious theory.  They  supposed  there  was  a  double 
conception,  which  we  find  thus  described  by  Bun- 
sen  :  "•  First  a  conception  by  which  the  body  was 
formed,  and  second  that  which  occurs  at  the  end 
of  forty  days  when  the  soul  is  added  to  it.  The 
former  is  called  the  active,  the  latter  the  passive 
conception.  Tlie  first  tool^  jD^^^e  with  Mary  in 
the  same  manner  as  with  all  other  human  beings  ; 
but  in  the  moment  of  the  latter,  God  delivered 


AFTER    THEORIES.  87 

the  soul  thiit  was  entering  the  womb  from  orig- 
inal sin  by  a  special  miracle."  ^ 

All  these  baseless  hypotheses  had  one  object  in 
view.  The  aim  was  to  shut  out  Jesus  from  any 
organic  connection  with  humanity ;  and  it  was  no 
matter  how  fanciful  and  extravagant  the  opinion 
might  be  if  only  it  prepared  the  way  for  an  ad- 
mission of  a  supernatural  birth. 

5.  That  birth  found  a  fifth  support  in  the  ris- 
ing clamor  in  favor  of  celibacy.  All  through  the 
Old  Testament  ages,  marriage  was  in  such  esteem 
that  one  wife  did  not  satisfy  the  sense  of  its 
value.  The  command  at  the  creation  to  be  fruit- 
ful and  multiply  was  well  remembered,  and  the 
Hebrew  spirit  uttered  itself  in  the  words  of 
Psalm  cxxvii.  3,  "  Lo  children  are  an  heritage  of 
the  Lord  ;  happy  is  the  man  that  hath  his  quiver 
full  of  them."  Wedlock  was  a  pure  and  holy 
state  with  Jewish  priests  and  the  first  Christian 
pastors.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  xiii.  4, 
marriage  is  called  ''  honorable  in  all  ;  "  and  in 
the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy  iv.  3,  among  the 
doctrines  of  devils  which  would  come  in,  in  the 
latter  times,  St.  Paul  names  this,  "  forbidding  to 
marry." 

1  Bunsen's  God  in  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  158. 


00  THE     BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

As  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century 
St.  Jerome  called  the  whole  book  of  Solomon's 
Song  an  indubitable  proof  in  favor  of  marriage, 
and  he  names  bishops  who  would  ordain  none 
but  married  men.  St.  Angustine  wrote  a  trea- 
tise "  De  Bono  Conjugale,"  denying  that  celibacy 
had  any  special  merit  of  itself,  though  praising  it 
when  chosen  in  a  right  spirit ;  and  Jovinian  of 
Verona,  whom  Neander  calls  the  Protestant  of 
the  fifth  century,  set  himself  against  the  frenzy 
of  Jiis  times,  and  defended  the  honorableness  and 
desirableness  of  marriafje. 

If  any  one  is  curious  to  know  how  an  opinion 
in  favor  of  celibacy  sprung  up,  and  what  con- 
nection it  had  with  various  heathen  superstitions, 
with  Manichean  speculations,  and  metaphysical 
notions  about  the  origin  of  souls,  he  may  find 
much  light  in  the  "  Historical  Sketch  of  Sacer- 
dotal Celibacy,"  by  Henry  C.  Lea,  Philadelphia, 
1867,  a  learned  and  thorough  work,  to  which  we 
have  been  indebted. 

Celibacy  was  at  first  severely  denounced  by 
the  Church.  The  Apostolioal  Constitutions  prob- 
ably reflected  the  spirit  of  their  times,  and  with 
an  unexpected  degree  of  good  sense,  they  said, 
"  Nam  nee  legitimus  concubitus,  nee  cubile,  nee 


AFTER   THEORIES.  89 

sanguinis  flnxus,  nee  nocturna  polUitio,  potest 
hominis  naturam  contaminare,  vel  spiritum  sanc- 
tum auferre  ;  8ed  sola  impietas  et  actio  injusta." 
And  again,  "  Nuptre  igitur  lionestse  et  commen- 
dabiles  sunt,  ipsaque  liberorum  procreatio  pm^a 
est,  nihil  enim  mali  est  in  bono." 

Pope  Syricns,  A.  D.  385,  was  the  first  to  enjoin 
celibacy,  asking,  "  Can  the  Spirit  dwell  in  any 
other  than  holy  bodies  ?  "  as  though,  says  Ne- 
ander,  "  true  holiness  is  incompatible  with  mar- 
ri'age."  Twenty  years  after  this,  Pope  Innocent 
I.  decreed  that  all  married  priests  should  be  de- 
prived of  office.  Success  could  attend  such  steps 
only  by  the  most  extravagant  laudations  of  the 
virtue  of  the  single  state,  and  Cyprian  got  up 
a  mathematical  comparison  of  it  to  martyrdom, 
which  he  rated  at  one  hundred  and  celibacy  at 
sixty  ;  and  Chrysostom  pronounced  virginity  as 
much  superior  to  marriage  as  heaven  is  to  earth, 
or  as  angels  are  to  men. 

To  support  the  opinion  in  favor  of  perpetual 
virginity  resort  was  also  had  to  wonders  revealed 
from  the  spiritual  world  ;  and  it  is  in  this  age 
that  occurred,  it  is  said,  the  incident  of  St.  Ju- 
lian  and  St.  Basilissa,  which  we  find  reported  as 
follows  in  one  of  the  old  legends  of  the  Church : 


90  THE   BIR.TH   OF  JESUS. 

Forced  by  his  parents  to  take  a  spouse,  Julian 
was  inspired  by  God  to  select  Basilissa,  who  was 
of  the  same  mind  as  himself,  namely,  that  after 
marriage  they  would  live  only  as  the  angels  in 
heaven.  On  the  nuptial  night  Jesus  Christ  ap- 
peared to  the  holy  couple,  and  he  and  his  august 
mother,  escorted  by  a  legion  of  virgins,  filled 
the  chamber  with  the  celestial  light  of  their 
presence,  and  with  the  odor  of  lilies  and  roses, 
though  it  was  midwinter,  and  brought  two  golden 
crowns,  and  said,  "  Victory  to  you,  Julian  ;  vic- 
tory to  you,  Basilissa  !  Exalted  shall  be  your 
place  in  heaven,  grand  shall  be  your  glory,  bril- 
liant shall  be  your  crowns  !  "  And  the  Church 
recognized  and  proclaimed  the  triumph  by  giv- 
ing the  title  of  saints  to  these  two  virgin  souls. 

But  even  Avith  all  these,  mathematics,  rhetoric, 
and  fable,  the  papal  decrees  were  a  failure.  The 
well-known  lines  of  Horace,  about  trying  to  ex- 
pel natui'e,  must  have  often  come  to  mind.^  For 
six  or  eight  centuries  the  subject  was  a  fruitful 
source  of  trouble.  If  the  reader  should  ever 
turn  over  the  pages   of   Dupin's  "  Ecclesiastical 

1  "Naturam  expellas  furca,  taraen  usque  recurret, 

Et  mala  perrunipet  furtim  f;tstidia  victrix." 

A  terrible  meaninar  must  have  been  often  found  in  these  lines. 


AFTER   THEORIES.  91 

History,"  where  are  summaries  of  the  decisions 
of  all  the  leading  Church  Councils,  he  will  get  a 
vivid  idea  of  the  vast  amount  of  discussion  that 
must  have  been  given  to  this  subject. 

"  This  overstrained  demand  on  the  virtue,  not 
of  individuals  in  a  high  state  of  enthusiasm,  but 
of  a  whole  class  of  men  ;  this  strife  with  nature 
in  that  which,  in  its  irregular  and  lawless  in- 
dulgence, is  the  source  of  so  many  evils  and  so 
much  misery,  in  its  more  moderate  and  legal 
form  is  the  parent  of  the  purest  affections  and 
the  holiest  charities ;  this  isolation  from  those 
social  ties,  which,  if  at  times  they  might  draw 
them  from  total  dedication  to  their  sacred  duties, 
in  general  would,  by  their  tending  to  soften  and 
humanize,  be  the  best  school  for  the  gentle  and 
affectionate  discharge  of  those  duties  ;  this  en- 
forcement of  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  was  not 
slow  in  producing  its  inevitable  evils.  Simul- 
taneously with  the  sterner  condemnation  of  mar- 
riage, or  at  least  the  exaggerated  praises  of  clias- 
tity,  we  hear  the  solemn  denunciations  of  the 
law  against  those  secret  evasions  by  which  the 
clergy  endeavored  to  obtain  the  fame  without 
the  practice  of  celibacy,  —  to  enjoy  some  of  the 
pleasures  without  the  crime  of  marriage.     From 


92  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

the  middle  of  the  third  century,  in  which  the 
growing  aversion  to  the  marriage  of  the  clergy 
begins  to  appear,  we  find  the  "  sub-introduced  " 
females  constantly  proscribed.  The  intimate 
union  of  the  priest  with  a  young,  often  a  beau- 
tiful, female,  who  still  passed  to  the  Avorld  under 
the  name  of  a  virgin,  and  was  called  by  the  priest 
by  the  unsuspected  name  of  a  sister,  seems,  from 
the  strong  and  reiterated  language  of  Jerome, 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  Chrysostom,  and  others,  to 
have  been  almost  general."  ^ 

Not  often  was  the  controversy  redeemed  by 
such  gleams  of  good  sense  as  St.  Ulric  showed, 
who,  in  952,  when  a  council  was  held  at  Augs- 
burg which  tried  to  enforce  celibacj',  addressed 
a  long  letter  to  the  pope,  Agapetus  II.,  in  which 
he  said :  "  How  much  moi^e  obnoxious  to  divine 
wrath  are  the  promiscuous  and  nameless  crimes 
indulged  in  by  those  who  would  enforce  celib- 
acy, than  the  chaste  and  single  marriages  of  the 
clergy ;  "  and  then  when,  alluding  to  the  "  vio- 
lent distortion  of  the  sacred  texts  by  those  who 
sought  authority  to  justify  the  laAvs,"  he  not  un- 
happily characterized  it  as  "  straining  the  breast 

1  Milman's  History  of  Christianiti/,  book  iv.,  chapter  1. 


AFTER   THEORIES.  93 

of    Scripture    until   it  yielded   blood    instead   of 
milk."  1 

Let  us  pass  over  the  petitions  sent  by  laymen 
begging  that  the  clergy  might  be  allowed  to 
marry,  as  this  might  protect  the  purity  of  house- 
holds committed  to  their  spiritual  charge ;  as 
also  the  secular  consideration  that  favored  celib- 
acy, namely,  the  vast  sums  of  money  bequeathed 
to  the  Church  for  religious  uses,  but  squandered 
by  the  clergy  on  their  children.  The  Church,  it 
was  believed,  would  be  richer  if  the  clergy  "  were 
relieved  of  the  cares  of  paternity,"  to  adopt  the 
euphemism  of  those  times. 

It  is  a  sad  history,  and  a  disgraceful  history, 
and  the  struggle  is  a  sad  and  disgraceful  one  in 
the  Romish  Church  to  this  day.  How  fruitful 
of  warning  to  those  who  would  set  themselves  in 
array  against  the  laws  of  our  nature  !  The  con- 
nection of  this  subject  with  the  point  under 
discussion  lies  in  the  fact,  that  in  all  this  long 
and  scandalous  controversy,  the  virginity  of  the 
mother  of  Christ,  and  the  supposed  continence 
of  Joseph,  were  matters  of  unceasing  laudation  : 
and  all  this  helped  to  fasten  upon  the  accounts  of 
^  Lea's  Sacerdotal  Celibacy,  p.  153. 


94  .      THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

the  birth  of  Jesus  the  interpretations  which. have 
been  handed  down  to  this  da3^ 

And  now  comes  the  fight.  For  fight  there  was 
between  the  more  moderate  and  more  scriptural 
interpretations  of  the  north  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  the  fiery  and  impetuous  fanaticism  of 
Alexandria.  In  no  other  struggle  in  all  Chris- 
tian history  have  theological  odium,  and  secta- 
rian hot-headedness,  and  partisan  diplomacy,  and 
blood-thirsty  measures  made  a  more  sticking  dis- 
play. Some  of  the  chief  points  in  this  j)ictur- 
esque  but  shameful  controversy  we  shall  present 
in  the  next  chapter.  As  we  have  now  seen  by 
what  means  the  primitive  records  of  Christ's 
birth  came  to  be  overlaid  by  false  interpretations, 
so  we  shall  next  mark  how  these  iuterpretations 
were  forced  into  the  line  of  Christian  tradition, 
and  were  established  as  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
Church. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE   FIGHT. 

r  MHE  difference  in  opinion,  on  the  subject  of 
the  nature  of  Christ,  between  the  northern 
and  southern  side  of  the  Mediterranean,  has 
been  summed  up  generally  by  Neander,  in  words 
which  we  have  quoted  in  a  former  chapter,  as 
follows :  The  Syrian  churches  held  that  God 
exerted  an  influence  on  a  man ;  the  Egyptian 
churches  held  that  God  became  a  man. 

Of  course  it  will  be  understood  that  the  Syr- 
ian theologians  explained  themselves  in  divers 
manners,  and  had  themselves  more  or  less  de- 
parted from  the  simplicity  of  the  sacred  writers, 
who  contented  themselves  with  calling  Jesus  the 
Son  of  God,  the  promised  Messiah,  the  Sent  of 
the  Father,  the  Saviour  of  the  world  ;  while,  in 
the  fifth  century,  there  was  everywhere  a  dispo- 
sition to  go  beyond  these  words,  —  a  prurient 
desire  to  pry  into  the  nature  of  Christ,  and  to 
apply  to  him  high-sounding  titles.      This  tend- 


96  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

ency  had  been  apparent  for  a  hundred  years, 
and  had  been  signally  displayed  in  the  Council 
at  Nice  in  325,  when  there  had  been  a  fierce  and 
successful  struggle  to  supplant  the  simplicity  of 
the  evangelical  statements  by  mysterious  meta- 
physical subtleties. 

But  the  excess  to  which  the  Egyptian  theo- 
logians carried  this  tendency  was  at  length  in- 
tolerably revolting  to  the  more  sober  thought  of 
the  Syrian  Christians  ;  and  when,  in  Alexandria, 
was  aj)plied  to  the  Virgin  Mary  the  expression 
6'eoTo/co?,  Mother  of  God,  it  was  like  casting  a  fire- 
brand into  an  inflammable  mass.  Let  us  mark 
some  of  the  circumstances  which  conspired  to 
kindle  the  flames  that  soon  raged. 

Alexandria  was  then  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent cities  of  the  world.  Founded  by  Alexander 
the  Great  332  b.  c,  its  advantageous  position 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile  gave  it  a  rapid  growth, 
an  early  commercial  importance,  and  a  popula- 
tion at  one  time  surpassing  that  of  Rome.  His- 
tory tells  us  of  its  immense  trade  between  Eu- 
rope and  the  far  East,  —  a  trade  afterwards  di- 
verted by  the  discovery  of  the  passage  round  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  but  in  our  times  regained, 
at  least  in  part,  by  the  construction  of  the  Suez 
Canal. 


THE   FIGHT.  97 

But  we  are  more  interested  in  its  then  multi- 
form intellectual  culture.  It  became  the  home 
of  scliolars  and  disputants  from  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  Eg3qDtian  mysteries,  and  Greek  soph- 
ism, and  Jewish  theocracy,  and  Persian  phi- 
losophy, and  Indian  subtleties,  strove  for  the 
mastery  in  the  fervid  life  favored  by  the  mer- 
curial spirit  of  the  people  and  the  place.  Here 
the  Old  Testament  had  been  translated  from  the 
Hebrew  into  Greek,  in  the  version  known  as  the 
Septuagint  ;  here  were  the  great  libraries  so 
famous  in  history  ;  and  here  flourished  the  men 
whose  names  make  such  a  figure  in  ecclesiastical 
writings,  —  Philo,  Porphyry,  Clement,  Origen, 
Athanasius,  Cyril. 

What  would  become  of  the  religion  of  Jesus 
when  thrown  into  that  seething  Alexandrian 
cauldron  ?  Christianity  must  have  something 
more  mysterious,  incomprehensible,  than  any 
otlier  system  if  it  would  there  gain  favor.  The 
obscure  origin  of  its  founder  was  an  offense  in 
the  eyes  of  ambitious  sectarists.  But  those  rec- 
ords of  his  birth  had  great  capabilities.  Some- 
thing might  be  made  out  of  them  more  won- 
derful than  Grecian  mythology  or  Indian  incar- 
nations could  parallel. 


98  THE   BJRTH    OF   JESUS. 

It  seems  probable  that  a  peculiar  notion  of  the 
Egyptian  philosophers  here  rendered  some  aid. 
Plutarch  tells  us,  in  his  life  of  Numa,  that  "the 
wise  Egyptians  held  tliat  it  may  be  possible  for  a 
divine  spirit  so  to  apply  itself  to  the  nature  of 
a  woman  as  to  imbreed  in  her  the  first  begin- 
nings of  generation,"  without  any  intercourse 
with  man.  Here  may  have  been  the  genetic 
idea  of  the  whole  Alexandrian  scheme,  and  of 
the  theology  thence  derived. 

The  tone  of  mind  then  prevailing  at  Alex- 
andria was  one  which  has  shown  itself  in  many 
ages,  and  may  be  recognized  at  this  present  time 
among  the  Ritualists  in  England,  and  those  in 
other  places  who  sympathize  with  them.  The 
more  wonderful  and  incomprehensible  the  dog- 
mas and  rites  of  religion  are  made,  the  more 
it  suits  the  taste  to  which  we  refer.  And  this 
taste  must  continually  have  something  new  to 
feed  it,  and  hence  there  is  a  rapid  progress  in  ex- 
travagance. To  those  who  renounce  the  guide  of 
the  judginent,  and  appeal  wholly  to  a  love  of  the 
marvelous,  learning  is  nothing  but  a  hindrance, 
common  sense  a  carnal  intruder,  and  the  man  of 
empty  brain,  with  lighted  candles  and  sing-song 
tone,  is    as   good   as   anybody,   on    a  level   with 


THE   FIGHT.  99 

■well-furnished  and  enlightened  minds, —  perhaps 
a  little  better,  for  there  is  no  suspicion  that  he 
has  wit  enough  to  see  the  hollow  delusion. 

In  his  Lectures  on  "  Ecclesiastical  History," 
Dr.  Campbell  says  :  "  To  men  of  shallow  under- 
standing, theological  paradoxes  afford  a  pleasure 
not  unlike,  that  which  is  derived  from  being 
present  at  the  wonderful  feats  of  jugglers.  In 
these,  by  mere  sleight  of  hand,  one  appears  to 
do  what  is  impossible  to  be  done  ;  and  in  those, 
by  mere  sleight  of  tongue  (in  which  the  judg- 
ment has  no  part),  an  appearance  of  meaning 
and  consistency  is  given  to  terins  the  most  self- 
contradictory,  and  the  incredible  seems  to  be 
rendered  worthy  of  belief.  To  set  fools  a- staring 
is  alike  the  aim  of  both.  Of  the  two  kinds  of 
artifice,  the  juggler's  and  the  sophist's,  the  former 
is  much  the  more  harmless." 

The  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  at  the  time  to 
which  we  now  come,  was  Cyril,  a  man  of  u.nfail- 
ing  cvmning  and  tact,  united  to  boundless  am- 
bition, and  prompt  and  arrogant  force.  He  had 
been  elevated  to  the  episcopal  throne  in  412,  and 
had  exercised  with  a  liigli  hand  the  lai'G^e  tern- 
poral  powers  which  his  position  gave  him.  His 
character  will  come  out  with  sufficient  distinct- 


100  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

ness.  At  the  head  of  a  fanatical  rabble  he  as- 
sailed the  quarter  of  the  city  assigned  to  the 
Jews,  then  numbering  forty  thousand  souls,  who 
had  there  long  lived  in  peace.  Their  synagogues 
he  tore  down,  and  their  goods  he  gave  to  the 
plunder  of  his  soldiers. ^ 

His  connection  with  the  thrilling  fate  of  the 
beautiful  and  accomplished  Hj^patia  has  often 
been  described.  She  had  applied  herself  to  the 
study  of  philosophy,  had  acquired  distinction  in 
Athens  as  a  scholar,  and  when  still  a  young 
woman,  had  been  invited  to  take  charge  of  one 
of  the  principal  schools  in  Alexandria,  where  her 
lectures  drew  crowds  of  admirers.  Her  great 
personal  attractions,  her  learning,  the  unblem- 
ished purity  of  her  life,  made  her  extremely 
popular  in  the  city ;  but  her  refusal  to  declare 
herself  a  Christian  —  a  refusal  which  did  her 
honor,  considering  what  the  word  "  Christian " 
then  meant  —  marked  her  out  as  a  victim  of 
religious  fanaticism. 

1  Josephus  says  that  Alexandria,  in  his  time,  was  half  a  Jew- 
ish city.  The  part  of  the  city  which  the  Jews  inhabited  was 
called  the  Delta.  Here  they  formed  a  sort  of  republic,  adminis- 
tering their  own  affairs,  rendering  justice,  attending  to  the  ex- 
ecution of  contracts  and  testaments,  as  in  an  independent  state. 
—  Josephus,  Antiq.,  xviii.  9. 


THE   FIGHT.  101 

Of  course,  it  is  impossible  at  this  day  to  ap- 
portion aright  the  guilt  of  her  murder.  Gibbon 
charges  it  upon  Cyril,  as  did  Theodoret,  a  church 
historian  of  the  fifth  century,  and  an  anti-Nes- 
torian.  Gibbon  says:  "  Gn  a  fatal  day,  in  the 
holy  season  of  Lent,  Hypatia  was  torn  from  her 
chariot,  stripped  naked,  dragged  to  the  church, 
and  inhumanly  butchered  by  the  hands  of  Peter 
the  reader,  and  a  troop  of  savage  and  merciless 
fanatics  ;  her  flesh  was  scraped  from  her  bones 
with  sharp  oyster  shells,  and  her  quivering  limbs 
were  given  to  the  flames.  The  just  progress  of  In- 
quiry and  punishment  was  stopped  by  seasonable 
gifts  ;  but  the  murder  of  Hypatia  has  imprinted 
an  indelible  stain  on  the  character  and  religion 
of  Cyril  of  Alexandria."^     Chapter  xlvii. 

1  An  interesting  sketcli  of  her  life  may  be  found  in  Cliateau- 
briand's  Eludes  Histnriqnes,  who  also  imputes  the  guilt  of  her 
murder  to  Cyril.  Hypatia  is  the  heroine  of  one  of  Charles 
Kingsley's  historical  romances.  The  bold  and  blunt  Jortin 
sums  up  the  case  of  Cyril  ami  Hypatia  in  these  words  :  "  Cyril 
was  strongly  suspected  of  having  been  an  instigator  of  her  mur- 
der. Dnpiu  and  Lowth  endeavor  to  vindicate  him  ;  but  though 
there  is  not  sufficient  evidence  to  condemn  him,  yet  neither  is 
there  room  to  acquit  him.  Neither  Socrates  nor  Valesius  have 
dropped  one  word  in  his  vindication.  Philostorgius  says  that 
Hypatia  was  murdered  by  the  Consubstantialists,  and  Damasius 


102  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

Triumphs  at  home  awakened  his  ambition  for 
conquests  abroad.  The  other  side  of  the  Med- 
iterranean offered  a  wider  field.  He  had  had 
aspirations  to  the  patriarchate  of  Constanti- 
nople. Foiled  there,  he  did  not  mean  to  sink 
into  a  subordinate  position.  Was  not  Alexan- 
dria too  large  a  place  to  play  a  secondary  part  ?  ^ 

says  it  was  done  at  the  instigation  of  Cyril."  —  Jortin's  Remarks 
on  Ecclesiastical  Uistorij. 

One  crime  more  or  less  weiglis  little  in  the  condemnation  of  a 
man  h'ke  Cyril.  In  regard  to  his  conduct  in  the  murder  of 
Hypatia,  Jortin  goes  too  far  when  he  says  that  Dupin  endeavors 
to  vindicate  him.  Dupin  calls  Hypatia  an  illustrious  woman, 
whose  reputation  for  learning  extended  so  far  that  !<tudeufcs 
flocked  to  her  lectures  from  all  parts,  and  says  that  her  friend- 
ship for  Orestes,  the  Governor  of  Alexandria,  an  open  enemy 
of  Cyril,  made  her  hateful  to  this  bishop.  Bupin,  indeed,  says  : 
"  Saint  Cyrille  n'eut  aucune  part  a  ce  mcurtre,"  referring  to 
the  act  itself,  but  not  screening  him  from  guilt  in  its  prepara- 
tion, for  Dupin  adds  that  the  assassination  was  by  this  prelate's 
fi-iends  ;  and  they  probably  well  knew  what  would  be  agreeable 
to  him.  —  Dupin,  vol.  iv.,  p.  41. 

1  "  Some  jealousy  whicli  at  that  time  subsisted  respecting  the 
relative  dignity  of  the  two  sees  of  Alexandria  and  Constanti- 
nople probably  heigliteiied  the  contention,  and  is  believed  by 
some  to  have  cau.sed  it."  These  are  feeble  words  found  in  Wad- 
dingfon'a  Church  Histori/.  The  truth  is,  this  jealousy  had  been 
long  implacable,  and  Cyril  was  confident  that  the  Roman  pontiff 
favored  the  claims  of  Alexandria.  Out  of  hatred  to  Constan 
tinople,  the  successive  popes  accorded  superiority  to  the  Egvp- 


THE  FIGHT.  103 

Was  his  church,  founded  by  St.  Mark,  to  yield 
to  that  of  Constantinople  which  had  grown  up 
wholly  by  secular  causes  ?  Was  not  the  differ- 
ence in  their  theology  an  opportunity  to  "  mount 
the  whirlwind  and  direct  the  storm  ?  " 

In  reading  history  of  any  kind,  ecclesiastical 
or  civil,  we  must  not  make  the  mistake  of  suppos- 
ing that  the  causes  assigned  for  controversies 
and  wars  create  the  passions  which  are  soon  dis- 
played. The  passions  existed  before  the  strug- 
gle, and  seek  the  object  by  which  they  may  ex- 
press themselves.  The  two  Italian  towns  which 
carried  on  a  murderous  war  against  each  other, 
alleged  as  a  reason  that  the  artists  of  one  rep- 
resented the  eyes  of  the  dead  Clu'ist  as  open, 
against  the  orthodox  fashion  of  the  other  who 
painted  them  as  shut ;  but  every  one  knew  that 

tian  see.  The  quarrel  l)etween  Alexandria  and  Constantinople 
was  further  emhiitered  by  the  aims  of  both  to  have  supreuiai-y 
over  all  the  churches  of  the  East.  "L'Evuque  de  Constanti- 
nople vouloit  etre  le  inaitre  dcs  Dioceses  d'A^ie  et  de  Pont; 
celui  d'Alexandrie  les  lui  disputoit,  et  vouloit  meme  soumettre  a 
sa  jurisdiction  une  partie  de  I'Orient."      Dupin,  vol.  iv.,  p.  327. 

Wiiat  scenes  of  intrigue,  bribery,  violence,  and  bloodshed  had 
long  mai'ked  the  relations  between  Constantinople  and  Alex- 
andria, may  be  seen  in  an  able  book,  St.  Jean  Chnjsostome,  par 
Amede'  Thierry,  Paris,  1872. 


104  THE   BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

here  was  only  the  pretext,  and  that  back  of  this 
they  had  many  old  scores  to  settle. 

The  pretext  for  wars  grows  ovit  of  subjects 
which  interest  the  world  at  the  time.  In  epochs 
of  national  aggrandizement  it  is  some  question  of 
a  boundary  ;  in  ages  of  martial  glory  it  is  some 
point  of  military  ambition  ;  in  commercial  eras 
it  is  some  infraction  of  the  interests  of  trade. 
In  the  fifth  century,  when  religious  discussions 
were  the  world's  great  employment,  it  was  a 
question  whether  Mary  was  the  Mother  of  God. 
But  in  all  these  cases  the  passion  is  back  of  the 
object,  and  the  alleged  cause  is  only  a  pretext.^ 

1  The  long  Ariaii  controversy  which  raged  so  fiercely  for  cen- 
turies, presents  a  memorable  example  of  the  difference  between 
pretext  and  cause.  Men  said  that  they  fought  fur  the  truth ;  but 
it  is  incredible  that  ignorant  hordes  of  barbarians  understood 
the  merits  of  the  discussion  nhout'omoousian  and  hmoioiisian.  It 
is  not  always  understood  even  by  learned  men  now.  The  in- 
tense hatred  of  Arianism  must  have  been  fed  l>y  political  and 
national  rancor,  llean  Stanley,  in  his  Lectures  on  the  East- 
em  Churches,  p.  173,  says  that  the  chief  cause  of  the  opposi- 
tion to  Arianism  was  its  "  making  two  Gods  instead  of  one, 
aud  tlius  relapsing  into  Polytheism."  No  opinion  can  appear 
stranger  than  this.  Early  and  late  in  the  controversy  the  Trin- 
itarians were  charged  with  making  three  Gods  instead  of  one, 
and  thus  rehipsing  into  Polytheism.  In  twenty-two  years  after 
the  Council  of  Nice,  a  large  Council  at  Sardis  anatliematized 
tlie  tritheistic  tendencies  of  believers  in  the  Nicene  Creed.     So, 


THE   FIGHT.  105 

Constantinople  was  the  head-quarters  of  the 
party  opposed  to  GyriL  Fanaticism  was  the 
disease  of  the  age,  and  Constantinople  had  its 
share.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  gives  a  vivid  picture 
of  the  rage  in  that  city  for  doctrinal  disputes. 
"  Every  nook  and  corner  of  the  city,"  he  says, 
"  is  full  of  men  wdio  discuss  incomprehensible 
subjects.  They  are  found  in  the  streets,  the 
markets,  among  the  people  who  sell  old  clothes, 
those  who  sit  at  the  tables  of  the  money-changers, 
and  those  who  deal  in  provisions.  Ask  a  man 
how  many  oboli  a  thing  comes  to,  he  gives  you  a 
specimen  of  dogmatizing  on  generated  and  un- 
generated  being.  Inquire  the  price  of  bread,  you 
are  answered,  the  Father  is  greater  than  the  Son, 
and  the  Son  subordinate  to  the  Father.  Ask  if 
the  bath  be  ready,  you  are  answered,  the  Son  of 
God  was  created  from  nothing."  ^ 

The  patriarch  of  Constantinople  at  that  time 

in  modern  times,  Arianism  has  never  been  thought  to  impair 
the  unity  of  God.  On  the  other  hand,  Trinitarianism  has 
always  been  prone  to  relapse  into  Polytheism.  As  to  the  real 
cause  of  the  internecine  strife  between  tliese  two  early  forms 
of  Christianity,  much,  no  doubt,  was  due  to  the  struggle  for  the 
appi'oval  of  the  civil  power,  as  non-acceptance  of  its  religious 
belief  was  treason,  and  was  punisliable  as  such. 
1  Quoted  by  Neander,  vol.  ii.,  p.  388. 


106  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

was  Nestorius,  He  had  been  brought  up  in  the 
cloisters  of  Antioch,  and  had  been  raised,  by  his 
austere  life  and  impetuous  eloquence,  to  be  head 
of  the  church  at  "•  a  corrupt  court  Avhere  every 
species  of  intrigue  and  passion  was  busily  at 
work."  Neander,  from  whom  we  quote  this, 
alludes  to  him  as  "  destitute  of  prudence  and 
moderation ;  "  but  this  seems  a  feeble  way  of 
characterizing  one  whose  whole  career  reveals 
that  w'ant  of  practical  tact  and  ability  often  seen 
in  men  who  know  nothing  except  from  books. 

His  obvious  weakness  invited  insults.  Once 
as  he  was  preaching  against  the  doctrine  of  the 
generation  of  the  eternal  Logos,  and  contrasting 
it  with  the  nativity  of  Christ  as  the  divine  instru- 
ment, he  was  hiterrupted  by  some  crack-brained 
fanatic  who  exclaimed,  "  No,  the  Eternal  Logos 
himself  condescended  to  the  second  birth ;  "  and 
the  church  became  the  scene  of  one  of  those 
commotions  of  clapping  and  stamping  for  which 
Constantinople  was  then  celebrated.  At  another 
time,  as  he  was  entering  the  church  to  preach  in 
his  usual  style,  a  rnonk  confronted  him,  declaring 
that  "  a  heretic  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  teach 
in  public." 

In  Alexandria  the  cry  was,  "Let  him  be  ac- 


THE   FIGHT.  107 

cursed  who  says  '  Maiy  is  not  the  Mother  of 
God.'  "  In  Constantinople  the  cry  was,  "  How- 
can  God  be  born  ?  Who  could  say  of  the  infant 
Jesus,  God  Avas  two  hours  or  two  days  old  ?  Ac- 
cursed be  he  who  vents  such  blasphemy  !  Mary 
Avas  xP"J-Toro/cos,  that  is.  Mother  of  Christ."  ^  And 
then  Ave  have  a  long  account  in  Church  History 
of  the  cunning  measures  of  Cyril  to  fan  the 
rising   flame,  of   the  spies    and  bribes  ^  that    he 

1  Early  in  the  last  century  some  papists,  who  thought  it  was 
time  to  start  some  new  wonderful  phraseology,  began  to  call  the 
mother  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  Anna,  "  Tlie  Grandmother  of  God." 
•  The  Pope,  Clement  XI.,  forbade  this,  as  he  believed  it  would  be 
offensive  to  the  Christian  world.  Dr.  Campbell,  in  his  Lectures 
OH  Ecclesiastical  History,  \n  recording  these  facts,  adds,  "  It  is 
impossible  for  one,  without  naming  Ncstorius,  to  give  a  clearer 
deci.sion  in  liis  favor."  But  to  have  called  Anna  the  grand- 
mother of  God  would  have  awakened  no  sense  of  impropriety 
in  the  fifth  century.  The  second  Council  of  Nice  called  the 
Apostle  James  "God's  brother."  The  phrase,  "Mother  of 
Goil,"  touched  some  chivalrous  sensibilities  of  the  age  when  it 
was  first  used,  and  it  is  impossible  to  explain  its  effect  until  we 
take  this  into  account.  "  It  was  intimately  connected,"  says  Dr. 
SchafF,  in  his  Church  History,  "with  the  growing  veneration  of 
the  Virgin.  It  therefore  struck  into  the  field  of  devotion  which 
lies  much  nearer  the  people  than  that  of  speculative  theology, 
and  thus  it  touched  the  most  vehement  passions." 

■''  Gibbon  gives  an  account  of  a  letter  that  has  been  singularly 
preserved  and  transmitted  down  to  our  times,  written  by  Cyril's 
archdeacon,  containing  a  list  of  prominent  persons  in  Constan- 


108  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

sent  to  Constantinople,  of  the  popular  preachers 
whom  he  won  over  to  his  side,  of  the  letters  and 
books  he  wrote,  dedicating  some  to  the  Emperor 
Theodosius  II.,  and  converting  to  his  views  one 
of  the  Emperor's  sisters,  Augusta  Pulcheria,  a 
woman  of  great  influence,  who  had  been  hurt  by 
some  slight  of  Nestoi'ius. 

This  hurt  might  easily  happen,  for  tiie  patri- 
arch was  impulsive  and  rough.  B}'^  many  of  the 
clergy  he  was  hated  as  a  stranger  put  over  them, 
and  most  of  them  joined  the  party  who  ascribed 
the  greatest  honor  to  the  Virgin, 

The  little  story  about  Dalmatius  is  a  curious* 
picture  of  the  times.  Dalmatius  was  a  monk 
who  for  forty-eight  years  had  never  left  his  cell. 
His  reputation  for  sanctity  was  so  great  that  the 
people  resorted  to  his  intercessions  iu  every  per- 
plexity. Even  the  Emperor  himself  had  repeat- 
edly visited  him  to  implore  his  aid.  He  Avas  an 
almost  omnipotent  oracle  in  that  generation.  By 
Alexandtian  influence  he  was  won  over  to  Cyril's 
side,  who  communicated  with  him  by  means  of 

tiuople  to  whom  magnificent  bribes  had  been  sent.  These  bribes 
must  have  been  numerous  as  well  as  costly,  for  it  apjK'ars  that 
the  clersxy  of  Alexandria  mourned  over  the  poverty  which  the 
gifts  entailed.  See  Gibbon,  47th  chapter,  and  also  Neander, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  482. 


THE    FIGHT.  109 

a  letter   concealed  in   a  hollow  reed  borne  as  a 
staff  by  a  pilgrim. 

Dalmatlus  denounced  Nestorius  as  "  an  evil 
beast  wlio  had  entered  the  city."  He  declared 
that  an  exigency  had  now  arrived  that  summoned 
him  to  leave  his  cell.  He  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  a  procession  of  monks  and  abbots  who  marched 
through  the  streets  bearing  burning  torches  and 
chanting  psalms.  He  demanded  that  the  Em- 
peror should  give  more  heed  to  "  six  thousand 
bishops  than  to  one  godless  man."  He  excited 
the  whole  city  to  a  state  of  frenzied  madness. 

All  this  encouraged  Cyril  to  a  more  decisive 
step.  Quarreling  bishops  in  the  East  had  often 
called  for  the  help  of  the  Pope  at  Rome,  who  was 
anxious  then  to  extend  and  assure  his  power. 
Cyril  represented  to  Celestine  I.,  the  reigning 
pontiff,  that  now  was  the  favorable  moment  for 
him  to  intervene,  and  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  party  contending  for  the  highest  views  of  the 
person  of  Christ.  To  this  end  he  suggested  that 
a  general  council  should  be  summoned  to  settle 
the  points  in  dispute. 

Readers  of  Church  History  know  what  coun- 
cils have  been.  One  has  been  held  in  our  day  and 
is  of  fresh  memory.     Under  the  pretense  of  an 


110  THE   BIETH   OF   JESUS. 

inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  there  have  proba- 
bly been  no  assemblies  of  men  where  worldly 
ambition,  and  personal  intrigue,  and  party  strife, 
and  national  hate,  and  adulation  and  bribery, 
have  played  a  more  effective  part. 

"  Nowhere  is  Christianity  less  attractive,  and, 
if  we  look  to  the  ordinary  tone  and  character  of 
the  proceedings,  less  authoritative,  than  in  the 
Councils  of  the  Church.  They  are  in  general  a 
fierce  collision  of  two  rival  factions,  neither  of 
which  will  yield,  each  of  which  is  solemnly 
pledged  against  conviction.  Intrigue,  injustice, 
violence,  decisions  on  authority  alone,  and  that 
the  authority  of  a  turbulent  majority,  decisions  by 
wild  acclamation  rather  than  after  sober  inquiry, 
detract  from  the  reverence,  and  impugn  the  judg- 
ment at  least  of  the  later  Councils.  The  close 
is  almost  invariably  a  terrible  anathema,  in  which 
it  is  impossible  not  to  discern  the  tones  of  hatred, 
of  arrogant  triumph,  of  rejoicing  at  the  damna- 
tion imprecated  against  the  humiliated  adver- 
sary." 1 

The  Council  summoned  to  meet  in  Ephesus 
"  about  Pentecost,"  in  the  year  431,  was  nothing 
but  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  Cyril  and  the  fifty 

1  Milman's  Latin  Christianity. 


THE   FIGHT.  Ill 

Egyptian  bishops,  and  their  numerous  attendants, 
whom  in  an  imposing  fleet  he  had  brought  with 
him.  It  was  opened  before  the  prelates  of  Asia 
Minor,  known  to  be  adverse  to  the  Alexandrian 
Creed,  had  arrived.  In  consequence  of  inunda- 
tions impairing  the  public  ways,  their  progress  was 
delayed.  In  their  absence,  Nestorius  and  sixty- 
eight'  bishops  refused  to  be  present.  The  session 
"was  held  in  the  great  Church  of  St.  Mary.  It 
was  Mary's  title  to  the  highest  honor  which  they 
were  now  determined  to  maintain.  Cyril  was 
president  and  directed  all  the  proceedings.  "  It 
had  been  skillfully  arranged  that  Ephesus  should 
be  chosen  for  the  decision  of  a  difference  resj)ect- 
ing  the  dignity  of  the  Virgin,  since  popular  ti'adi- 
tion  had  buried  her  in  that  city,  and  the  imperfect 
Christianity  of  its  inhabitants  had  readily  trans- 
ferred to  her  the  worship  which  their  ancestors 
had  offered  to  Diana."  ^  There  was  no  pretense 
at  deliberation  and  argument,  for  a  snap-judgment 
was  pronounced,  after  a  session  of  only  one  day. 

Tlieir   decision,  which    received    one   hundred 

and    sixty  signatures,  is  worth    quoting.     "  Our 

Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  Nestorius  blasphemed,  has 

ordained  by  this  most  holy  synod  that  the  Nesto- 

1  Wadilino-ton's  Ch.  Hist. 


112  THE   BIRTH    OF  JESUS. 

rius  above  named  should   be  excluded  from  the 

Episcopal  dignity,  and  from  the  whole  college  of 

priests  : "   and    this    sentence,    which    names    no 

charge  and  adduces  no  proof,  was  reached,  as  was 

said,  with  an  hypocrisy  not  altogether  unknown 

in  such  cases,  "  after  many  tears." 

This  decree  w^as  sent  "  To  Nestorius,  a  second 

Judas  ;  "  and  Cyril  immediately  had  it  posted  up 

in  Ephesus,  proclaimed  by  heralds,  and  reechoed 

by  a  crowd  of  bullies  and  slaves,  whom  he  had 

brought  into  tlie  cit}^  to  sustain  his  side  by  clamors 

and  blows.     Illuminations  and  songs  and  tumults 

attested    his  triumph,  and  the  joy  of   the   city, 

which  claimed  the  honor  of  possessing  the  body 

of  the  Virgin. 1 

1  Of  this  Couucil  Dupin  writes  as  follows  :  "  There  are  sev- 
eral objections  made  against  the  nature  of  this  Council  and  the 
management  of  it.  Some  say  tliat  it  ought  to  be  accounted  no 
better  than  a  tumultuous  and  rash  assembly,  where  all  things 
were  carried  by  passion  and  noise,  and  not  an  Ecumenical  Coun- 
cil ;  that  St.  Cyril  held  it  against  the  consent  of  the  commis- 
sioners whom  the  emperor  sent  to  call  them  together ;  that  not 
only  Nestdrius  and  his  party,  but  also  several  other  orthodox 
bishops  opposed  it ;  that  Cyril  scorned  to  wait  for  the  Eastern 
bishops,  who  would  soon  have  arrived,  and  who  desired  him  to 
wait  for  them ;  that  he  did  not  stay  for  the  legates  of  the  holy 
see,  nor  any  of  the  western  bishops ;  that  his  synod  was  made 
up  of  the  Egyptian  bishops  and  some  bishops  of  Asia  who  were 
wholly   devoted  to  his  will ;    that   it  was  be  that  did  all  and 


THE    FIGHT.  113 

The  spirit  which  animated  Cyril's  party  may 
be  i]ifei'red  from  some  of  their  sayings  which  have 

ordered  all  in  the  Council.  The  manner  in  which  he  acted 
a.sainst  Nestorius,  and  the  rashness  he  was  guilty  of  in  con- 
demning him,  make  it  credible  that  he  was  actuated  by  nothing 
but  piission  ;  that  St.  Isidore  reproved  St.  Cyril,  telling  him  '  that 
several  persons  laughed  at  him,  and  at  the  tragedy  which  he 
had  acted  at  Ephesus;  that  it  was  said  openly  that  he  sought 
nothing  but  revenge  upon  his  encmj- ;  that  he  had  better  have 
been  quiet  and  not  revenged  his  private  quarrels  at  the  expense 
of  the  Church,  and  raise  an  eteinal  discord  among  Christians 
under  a  pretense  of  piety.'  This  Council  was  so  far  from  bring- 
ing peace  that  it  brought  nothing  but  trouble,  divisions,  and 
scandals  into  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  so  that  that  may  be 
said  of  this  Council  with  a  great  deal  more  truth,  which  St.  Greg- 
ory Nazianzeu  said  of  the  Councils  of  his  time, '  that  he  never  saw 
an  asseml)]y  of  bishops  that  had  a  good  and  happy  conclusion ; 
that  they  always  increased  the  distemper  I'atlier  than  cured  it; 
that  the  obstinate  contests  and  ambition  of  domineering  which 
ordinarily  reigns  among  them  renders  them  prejudicial,  and 
generally  they  who  are  concerned  to  judge  others,  are  moved 
thereto  by  ill-will,  rather  than  by  a  desire  to  restrain  faults.' 
This  seems  to  agree  to  tlie  Council  of  Ej)hesus  better  than  to 
any  otber  assembly  of  bishops."  Dupiu,  vol.  iv.,  p.  213.  Dupin 
proceeds  to  mitigate  the  force  of  some  of  tliese  objections,  and 
finds  the  central  cause  of  the  quarrel  in  the  self-contradictory 
terms  dear  to  the  Egyptian,  but  offensive  to  the  Oriental  bishops. 
Eeferring  to  what  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen  here  said  of  Councils, 
Dr.  Campbell  adds :  "  How  a  man,  who,  in  the  fifth  century 
could  talk  so  reasonably  and  so  much  like  a  Christian,  came  to 
be  sainted,  is  not  indeed  to  be  easily  accounted  fur." 
8 


114  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

come  down  to  us.  One  bishop  declared  that  "as 
those  who  counterfeit  the  imperial  coin  deserve 
the  extremest  punishment,  so  Nestorius,  who  has 
presumed  to  falsify  the  doctrines  of  orthodoxy, 
deserves  every  punishment  both  from  God  and 
man."  Another  bishop  preached  a  sermon  in 
wliieh  he  said,  as  quoted  by  Neander,  that  "  Nes- 
torius was  worse  than  Cain  and  the  Sodomites. 
The  earth  ought  to  open  and  swallow  him  up  ; 
fire  ought  to  rain  down  on  him  from  heaven. 
The  God  Logos  whom  he  had  ventured  to  sever, 
who  had  come  forth  in  the  flesh  from  Mary,  the 
Mother  of  God,  would  appoint  for  him  the  pun- 
ishment of  eternal  torments  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment." 

And  what  was  the  offense  of  this  man  ?  He 
believed  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  a  Teacher 
sent  from  God,  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 
But  he  could  not  accept  the  interpretations  which 
Alexandrian  fanaticism  had  put  upon  the  records 
of  Christ's  birth.  He  called  Mary  the  Mother 
of  Christ,  and  not  the  Mother  of  God.  For  this 
offense,  and  as  the  representative  of  the  prevail- 
ing belief  of  the  Syrian  churches,  he  must  be 
crushed.^ 

1  "  Had  Nestorius  been  a  better  politician,  and  a  more  equal 


THE   FIGHT.  115 

When  at  length  the  tardy  bishops  arrived  at 
Ephesus,  they  were  amazed  at  the  precipitancy  of 
C^a-il,  and  proceeded  to  organize  a  new  Council. 
They  declared  that  the  decision  which  had  been 
proclaimed  was  of  ex  'parte  origin,  without  valid- 
ity, and  that  they  themselves,  to  the  number  of 
forty-two  bishops,  constituted  the  only  regular 
Council. 

But  Cyril  had  got  the  start  of  them.  He  soon 
brought  both  the  Emperor  —  a  feeble  boy,  under 
the  influence  of  his  mother  and  sister  —  and 
the  Pope  to  sustain  his  side.  Nestorius  was  de- 
graded, his  books  were  burned,  all  meetings  of 
his  friends  forbidden,  and  he  was  driven  into  exile 
on  one  of  the  oases  of  Egypt,  near  the  confines  of 
Nubia.  Here  hordes  of  Nubian  barbarians  soon 
fell  upon  the  place,  laying  it  waste  by  fire  and  the 

match  for  his  adversary,  St.  Cyril,  the  decision  of  the  Clmrch  had 
infallibly  been  the  reverse  of  what  it  was  ;  and  we  should  at  this 
day  find  Cyrilianism  in  the  list  of  heresies,  and  a  Saint  Nesto- 
rius in  the  calendar  of  the  beatified."  Campbell's  Lectures  on 
Ecclesiastical  History.  "From  his  sad  fate  and  upright  character, 
Nestorius,  after  having  been  long  abhorred,  h;>s  in  modern  times, 
since  Luther,  found  much  sympathy ;  while  Cyril,  by  his  violent 
conduct,  has  incurred  much  censure.  Gieseler  and  Neander  take 
the  part  of  Nestorius ;  and  Milman  said  he  would  rather  meet 
the  judgment  of  the  Divine  Redeemer  loaded  with  the  errors  of 
Nestorius  than  with  the  barbarities  of  Cyril."     SchafF. 


116  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

sword.  Nestoiius  was  carried  off  as  a  prisoner. 
By  a  tool  of  Cyril  the  old  man  was  dragged  about 
from  place  to  place  under  a  guard  of  soldiers.  It 
is  not  certainly  known  how  death  came  to  his 
relief.  As  to  Cyril,  we  may  say  in  the  words  of 
Gibbon,  that  "  the  title  Saint  prefixed  to  his 
name  is  a  mark  that  his  opinions  and  his  party 
finally  prevailed."  ^ 

1  When  those  who  shaved  the  opinions  of  Nestoriiis  were 
driven  away  from  Constantinople,  some  of  them  fled  to  tlie  East, 
and  their  descendants,  tnking  his  name,  and  establishing  churches 
amid  the  mountain-fastnesses  of  Western  Persia,  exist  to  this  day. 
They  form  a  distinct  line  of  transmission  of  the  Christian  faith, 
independent  of  the  Romish  and  Greek  churches,  and  in  some  re- 
spects purer  than  either.  Gibbon  is  mistaken  who  speaks  of 
them  as  "obliterated."  The  Nestorians  number  many  thousand 
souls.  Though  an  ignorant  and  decaying  people,  they  still  pro- 
test against  calling  Mary  the  Mother  of  God,  or  addressing  her 
in  prayer,  or  adoring  her  image.  A  Nestorian  Bishop,  Mar  Yo- 
hannaii,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1842.  Alexander  von 
Humboldt,  in  the  second  volume  of  his  Costnos,  says,  "  It  was 
one  of  the  wondrous  arrangements  in  the  system  of  things  that 
the  Christian  sect  of  the  Nestorians,  which  has  exerted  a  very 
important  influence  on  the  geographical  extension  of  knowledge, 
vv'as  of  service  even  to  the  Arabians  before  the  latter  found  their 
way  to  learned  and  disputatious  Alexandria.  The  Arabians 
gained  their  first  acquaintance  with  Grecian  literature  through 
the  Syrians,  while  the  Syrians  themselves  had  first  received  a 
knowledge  of  Grecian  literature  through  the  anathematized 
Nestorians." 


THE    FIGHT.  117 

A  triumph  where  there  was  no  inward  convic- 
tion, but  only  an  artificial  union  through  fraud 
and  violence  —  how  long  would  it  last?  Dupin 
says:  "La  paix  apparente  qui  le  suivit  n'etait 
qu'une  paix  platree."  There  were  other  troubles 
at  hand,  and  we  must  glance  at  them  in  order 
to  complete  our  view  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
Alexandrian  theology  got  its  foothold  in  the 
Church.  1 

There  was  in  Constantinople  an  abbot  by  the 
name  of  Eutyches,  a  warm  advocate  of  the  Egyp- 
tian dogma,  who  devised  some  forms  of  expression 
that  opened  the  controversy  anew.  Taking  the 
words  in  the  Proem  of  St.  John's  Gospel  in  their 
literal  sense,  "  The  Word  was  God,  and  the  Word 
was  made  flesh,"  he  contended  not  only  that 
Christ  was  God,  but  there  was  nothing  in  him 
but  God.     He  had  but  one  nature  and  that  was 

1  In  looking  back  upon  this  shameful  conflict,  Milman,  in  his 
History  of  Christianity,  has  some  reflections  worth  reading, 
thonuh  in  part  quoted  on  a  preceding  page.  He  says:  "While 
ambition,  intrigue,  arrogance,  rapacity,  and  violence  are  pro- 
scribed as  uncliristian  means  ;  barbarity,  persecution,  bloodshed, 
as  unholy  and  unevangelical  wickednesses;  posterity  will  con- 
demn the  orthodox  Cyril  as  one  of  the  worst  of  heretics  against 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  Who  would  not  meet  the  judgment  of 
the  Divine  Redeemer  loaded  with  the  errors  of  Nestorius,  rather 
than  with  the  barbarities  of  Cyril '?  " 


118  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

God.  Those  who  said  that  God  dwelt  in  Christ, 
divided  Christ  into  two  parts,  the  divine  and  the 
human  Christ ;  and  this  leaves  the  door  open  to 
the  suspicion  that  the  last  was  born  in  the  natural 
way.  This  is  awful  heresy.  Accordingly  the 
cry  was,  "  Let  those  who  divide  Christ  be  them- 
selves divided  by  the  sword.  Let  them  be  hewn 
in  pieces.     Let  them  be  burned  alive."  ^ 

Flavian,  the  successor  of  Nestorius,  and  like 
him  a  representative  of  the  Syrian  theology,  op- 
posed these  statements.  An  appeal  was  again 
made  to  the  Pope.  The  pontiff,  Leo  the  Great, 
called  another  Council  which  met  at  Ephesus  in 
449.  It  is  known  in  history  as  the  "  Robber 
Synod,"  from  its  scenes  of  violence  and  blood- 
shed. "  A  troop  of  hospital  waiters  and  soldiers," 
says  Neander,  "was  admitted  into  the  assembly 
for  the  purpose  of  intimidating  refractory  mem- 

bei'S Force    was    resorted   to   in    various 

ways  to  compel  men  to  assent  to  the  decisions  of 
the  Council.  Bishops  were  kept  confined  in  the 
Church.  They  were  menaced  by  soldiers  and 
monks  till  they  liad  subscribed,  and  blank  papers 
were  laid  before  them  for  their  signature  which 
could  afterwards  be  filled  up  with  Avhatever  the 
1  See  Neander,  V(j1.  ii.,  p.  501. 


THE   FIGHT.  119 

leaders  chose."  It  was  tliiis  that  the  Alexan- 
drian, Eutychian,  Monophysite  (one  nature}  doc- 
trine overwhelmed  all  opposition.^ 

Gibbon  gives  a  picturesque  view  of  this  Coun- 
cil. "  A  furious  multitude  of  monks  and  soldiers, 
with  staves  and  swords  and  chains,  burst  into  the 
church ;  the  trembling  bishops  hid  themselves 
behind  the  altar  or  under  the  benches,  and  as 
they  were  not  inspired  with  the  zeal  of  martyr- 
dom, they  successively  subscribed  a  blank  paper 
which  was  afterwards  filled  with  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  Byzantine  prelate.  Flavian  was  in- 
stantly delivered  to  the  wild  beasts  of  this  spirit- 
ual amphitheatre.     It  is  said  that  the  patriarch 

^  It  is  edifying  to  see  what  sensible  words  a  contemporary 
uttered  in  regard  to  the  fact  that  the  violent  party  had  the 
majority  on  its  side.  Eutherus  was  at  this  time  Bishop  of 
Tyana,  and  with  other  Syrian  prelates  manfully  comljated  the 
Alexandrian  theology.  When  told  that  the  niultitiidu  was 
against  him,  he  asked,  in  words  translated  into  French  :  "  Mais 
quelle  est  cette  multitude  que  vous  ni'opposez  ?  C'est  une 
troupe  de  gens  corrumpus  par  les  flatteries  et  par  les  prisons. 
C'est  un  nombre  d'ignorans  qui  n'ont  point  de  lumiere  pour  se 
conduire.  Ce  sont  une  quantitede  personnes  foibles  et  timides 
qui  se  sont  laissc'es  vaincre.  Ainsi  quand  vous  m'opposez  cette 
multitude  pour  autoriser  le  mensonge,  vous  ne  faites  autre 
chose  que  de  decouvrir  la  grandeur  du  mal  et  le  grand  nombre 
des  miserables."     Dupin,  vol.  iv.,  p.  68. 


120  THE   BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

of  Alexandria  reviled  and  buffeted  and  kicked 
and  trainj)led  his  brother  of  Constantinople ;  it 
is  certain  that  the  victim,  before  he  could  leach 
the  place  of  his  exile,  expired  on  the  third  day  of 
the  wounds  and  bruises  he  had  received  at  Ephe- 
sus."     Chapter  47. 

Two  years  later  still  another  Council  was  called 
to  meet  at  Chalcedon,  whose  main  object  it 
seemed  to  be  to  hit  upon  expressions  that  would 
harmonize  all  parties.  As  their  result  has  con- 
tinued to  the  present  time  to  be  the  orthodox 
expi'ession  of  the  nature  and  person  of  Christ,  it 
deserves  to  be  liere  quoted.  We  find  it  thus 
stated  by  Dupin :  "  That  they  did  believe  in  one 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  perfect  God 
and  perfect  man,  consubstantial  Avith  God  as  to 
his  divinity,  and  with  man  according  to  his  hu- 
manity; in  whom  there  are  two  natures  united 
without  change,  division,  or  separation  ;  so  that 
the  properties  of  the  two  natures  do  subsist  in 
and  agree  to  one  and  the  same  person,  who  is 
not  divided  into  two,  but  is  one  Jesus  Christ." 

And  thus,  as  Gibbon  says,  "  the  road  to  Para- 
dise, a  bridge  as  sharp  as  a  razor,  was  suspended 
over  the  abyss  by  the  master-hand  of  the  theolog- 
ical artist.    During  ten  centuries  of  blindness  and 


THE   FIGHT.  121 

servitude,  Europe  received  her  religious  opinions 
from  the  oracle  of  the  Vatican,  and  the  same  doc- 
trine, already  varnished  with  the  rust  of  antiq- 
uity, was  admitted  without  dispute  into  the  creed 
of  the  Reformers,  who  disclaimed  the  supremacy 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  The  Synod  of  Chalcedoii 
still  triumphs  in  the  Protestant  churches  ;  but  the 
ferment  of  controversy  has  subsided,  and  the 
most  pious  Christians  of  the  present  day  are 
ignorant  or  careless  of  their  belief  concerning  the 
mysteries  of  the  incarnation."     Chapter  47. 

No,  not  so  much  "  careless  of  their  belief,"  as 
blindl}^  following  their  leaders  like  sheep.  J'or 
this  decision  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  is  re- 
garded in  some  quarters,  even  at  the  present  day, 
as  the  last  word  which  the  science  of  theology 
can  utter.  Dr.  Shedd,  in  his  "  History  of  Doc- 
trines," says,  "  Beyond  this,  the  human  mind,  it 
is  probable,  is  unable  to  go  in  the  endeavor  to 
unfold  the  mystery  of  Christ's  complex  person." 

If  a  writer  on  geology,  reverting  to  the  earliest 
speculations  on  that  science,  should  claim  them  as 
something  beyond  which  the  human  mind  cannot 
go,  what  should  we  think  of  such  a  statement  as 
that.i 

1  After  all,  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  these  definitions  of  the 


122  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

Tlie  world  lias  probably  never  known  an  as- 
sumption more  monstrous  than  that  we  are  to 
yield  our  confidence  to  those  packed  conventions 
of  ignorant  and  lirutal  men.  Out  upon  the  claim, 
as  one  of  the  most  insulting  and  outrageous  ever 
made.  It  does,  indeed,  become  a  humble  faith  to 
recognize  with  revei'ence  a  Divine  hand  in  the 
transmission  of  Christianity  from  age  to  age,  and 
to  feel  grateful  for  all  that  learning  and  genius 
have  contributed  to  its  defense.     But  no  less  is 

doctviue  of  the  Trinity  are  wholly  unsatisfactory  to  the  most 
acute  evangelical  minds  of  the  present  day.  It  is  admitted  that 
they  are  self-contradictory.  The  late  Professor  Moses  Stuart, 
of  Andovcr  Theological  Seminar}',  says  of  them,  "  They  are  open 
to  grave  and  appalling  objections."  In  further  criticising  their 
representations  he  says  :  "If  I  understand  their  views  [the  Nicene 
Fathers],  they  do,  in  an  occult  manner  indeed,  but  yet  really  and 
effectually  interfere  with  the  true  equality  in  substance,  ])o\ver, 
and  gloi-y  of  the  three  persons  or  distinctions  in  the  Godhead. 
This  seems  to  be  taking  away  with  the  left  hand  what  we  have 
given  with  the  right.  If  I  say  in  words  that  Christ  and  the 
Spirit  are  God,  and  vcrv  God,  and  yet  assign  to  them  attributes 
or  a  condition  which  after  all  make  them  dependent,  and  repre- 
sent them  as  derived  and  originated,  then  I  am  in  fact  no  real 
believer  in  the  doctrine  of  true  equality  among  the  persons  of  the 
Godhead  ;  or  else  I  use  expressions  out  of  their  lawful  and  ac- 
customed sense,  and  lose  myself  amid  the  sound  of  words,  while 
things  are  not  examined  and  defined  with  scrupulous  care  and  ac- 
curacy."   Professor  Stuart,  in  Biblical  Eeposiiorij  for  April,  1835. 


THE   FIGHT.  123 

the  obligation  to  reject  with  scorn  the  mass  of 
contradictions  and  lies  which  some  have  tried  to 
foist  into  the  sacred  deposit  of  trnth. 

When  we  reflect  upon  the  perversions  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  upon  the  divisions  and  wars  among 
Christians  which  all  these  mad  passions  entailed, 
one  gigantic  fact  must  not  be  overlooked,  though 
it  is  not  often  adduced  in  this  connection. 

Of  course  a  great  religion,  which  has  acted, 
and  still  acts,  a  tremendous  part  in  history,  is  the 
result  of  many  cooperating  influences  ;  but  who 
doubts  that  the  vast  Mohammedan  power  found 
one  of  the  causes  of  its  rise  and  marvelous  diffu- 
sion in  the  doctrinal  corruptions  and  strifes  which 
extended  into  the  centuries  that  followed  the 
times  to  which  we  have  here  referred  ?  It  started 
as  a  restorer  of  the  original  purity  of  various  re- 
ligions, Arabian,  Jewish,  and  Christian,  but  to  a 
large  degree  it  was  a  protest  against  the  attack 
upon  the  unity  of  God,  and  the  ascription  to 
Jesus  of  equality  with  the  Supreme  Father. 

"  There  is  no  God  but  God,"  was  its  rallying 
cry,  while  both  Mohammed  and  Jesus  Avere  re- 
garded as  Teachers  sent  from  heaven.  We  do 
not  comprehend  the  system  of  the  false  Prophet 
until  we  look  back  upon  it  as  in  part  an  offshoot 


124  THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

from  a  corrupt  Christianity,  —  an  offshoot  which 
in  some  fundamental  points  better  preserved  the 
purity  of  the  parent  stock,  —  an  offshoot  which 
might  have  never  reached  such  height  and 
strength  had  not  the  errors  and  passions  of  Chris- 
tians opened  the  way  to  its  growth. 

In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  endeavor  to  prove 
that  the  earliest  Christian  writers,  subsequent  to 
the  evangelists  and  apostles,  knew  nothing  of 
these  corrujptions. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    FATHERS. 

"TESTIS  of  Nazareth,  receiving  in  conformity 
^  with  the  normal  action  of  his  own  intellectual 
and  spiritual  nature,  an  inspiration  from  on  high 
by  which  he  became  the  Son  of  God,  the  Teacher 
and  Guide  of  humanity,  yet  born  of  Mary  and 
Joseph,  amid  beautiful  and  touching  natural  cir- 
cumstances, AAdiich  formed  part  of  family  me- 
moirs or  traditions,  not  at  first  noticed,  but  which 
were  afterwards  attached  to'  the  gospel  histories, 
and  were  subsequently  misinterpreted  in  support 
of  a  doctrine  never  heard  of  in  the  earliest  ages 
of  the  Church,  but  into  whose  creed  it  became 
afterwards  incorporated  by  fraud  and  violence  — 
if  all  this  be  so,  we  may  expect  to  find  traces  of 
it  in  the  writings  of  the  Fathers. 

For  this  purpose  it  becomes  important  to  give 
a  careful  examination  to  those  writings,  in  the 
chronological  order  usually  assigned  to  them,  and 
to  note  what  they  have  to  say  about  Jesus.     If 


126  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

we  find  in  the  earliest  Chi'istian  generations  no 
mention  of  a  supernatural  birth,  if  we  see  this 
dogma  in  after  generations  first  incidentally  al- 
luded to,  and  finally  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  cent- 
uries set  forth  in  the  manner  witnessed  in  the 
last  chapter,  then  we  may  regard  these  facts  as 
confirmations  of  the  essential  truth  of  the  posi- 
tions here  taken. 

1.  The  first  Christian  writer  after  the  apostles 
was  Clement  of  Rome.  Very  little  is  known  of 
Lis  life.  He  is  claimed  as  the  thii-d  successor 
from  St.  Peter  in  the  line  of  Popes ;  but  he  lived 
long  before  the  word  Pope  had  acquired  the 
meaning  since  so  well  known.  There  is  a  con- 
currence of  all  writers  in  the  opinion  that  he  died 
in  Rome,  about  the  'year  100,  having  had  some 
office  there  as  pastor  or  overseer  of  the  Church, 
and  from  thence  had  sent  two  epistles  to  the 
church  at  Corinth.  The  second  is  short  and  of 
little  consequence.  The  first  is  of  considerable 
length,  and  of  much  importance. 

Of  this  epistle  Mosheim  says,  ''  It  is  generally, 
and  I  think  not  without  reason,  considered  as 
indisputably  genuine  in  the  main."  Neander 
says,  "  The  first  epistle  of  Clement  was  in  the 
first  centuries  read  at  public  worship  in  many  of 


thp:  fathers.  127 

the  cliurches  along  with  the  Scriptures  of  the 
New  Testament,  Although  genuine  in  the  main, 
it  is  still  not  exempt  from  many  interpolations." 
Donaldson,  in  his  "  Critical  History  of  Christian 
Literature  and  Doctrine,"  a  learned  and  able 
work,  which  we  shall  have  frequent  occasion  to 
consult,  quotes  the  evidence  of  Eusebius  and  Je- 
rome to  prove  that  it  was  by  them  regarded  as 
the  trustworthy  writing  of  Clement,  and  fixes 
its  date  as  near  the  close  of  the  first  centiuy. 

This  letter,  which  is  longer  than  any  of  the 
epistles  of  St.  Paul,  gives  an  account  of  Christ's 
life  and  w'ords  and  promises,  and  of  the  leading 
hopes  and  duties  of  believers.  It  is  therefore  of 
value  as  showing  Avhat  was  the  Christian  faith 
and  spirit  in  the  very  first  3'ears  after  the  death 
of  the  apostles.  We  therefore  turn  to  it  with 
interest  to  mark  what  it  has  to  sny  on  the  subject 
of  the  miraculous  birth  of  Christ. 

This  epistle  may  be  found  in  the  "  Apocryphal 
New  Testament,"  printed  in  Boston,  1832,  and 
the  reader  can  see  for  himself  that  a  miraculous 
conception,  or  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus,  is  a 
point  not  once  named  or  alluded  to.  In  reading 
this  epistle  no  one  could  possibly  obtain  a  hint 
that  such  a  dogma  had  ever  been  taught.    It  thus 


128  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

follows  in  the  steps  of  St.  Paul,  and  St.  Peter, 
and  St.  John,  in  not  recognizing  one  of  the  mis- 
interpretations of  later  ages. 

Moreover  there  is  no  allusion  to  the  mii'aculous 
conception  or  birth  in  the  other  writings  of  Clem- 
ent. The  weight  of  this  negative  evidence,  to 
show  that  this  was  not  then  believed  by  the 
Christian  Church,  will  not  be  overlooked  by  the 
reader. 

2.  Following  Clement,  the  next  Christian  writ- 
er whose  works  we  possess  is  Polycarp.  He  was 
for  a  long  time  pastor  of  a  church  at  Smyrna, 
from  which  place  he  wrote  an  extant  epistle  to 
the  Philippians.  The  date  is  not  far  from  150, 
and  though,  as  Mosheim  says,  it  has  been  inter- 
polated by  weak  and  superstitious  copyists,  it  is 
by  many  considered  for  the  most  part  genuine 
and  authentic. 

Two  circumstances  give  special  interest  to 
Polycarp :  the  first  that  he  had  been  personally 
acquainted  with  the  Apostle  John ;  and  the  sec- 
ond that  in  his  old  age  he  was  dragged  into  the 
amphitheatre  at  Smyrna,  and  required  to  blas- 
pheme Christ.  He  said,  "  Eighty  and  six  years 
have  I  served  Christ,  and  he  has  never  done  me 
an  injury;    how  can  I  blaspheme  my  King  and 


THE   FATHERS.  129 

Saviour?"  Then  he  was  disrobed,  bound  to  a 
stake,  and  burned  to  death. 

Tlie  epistle  to  the  Philippians  is  not  long.  In 
this,  Polycarja  writes  of  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God, 
who  suffered  for  us,  and  whom  God  raised  up 
from  the  dead;  but  there  is  not  the  remotest 
allusion  to  anything  peculiar  in  his  birth.  This 
epistle  is  also  included  in  the  "  Apocryphal  New 
Testament,"  and  all  can  easily  procure  it  and  read 
it  for  theniselves.  If  the  interpretations  now  put 
upon  the  records  of  Christ's  birth  were  then 
believed,  and  were  then  thought  to  have  the 
importance  now  ascribed  to  them,  why  did  not 
those  early  Fathers  have  one  word  to  say  about 
them? 

3.  Barnabas  is  the  next  Christian  writer.  He 
was  the  companion  of  St.  Paul,  and  was  the  noble 
man  who  took  that  apostle  by  the  hand,  after  his 
conversion,  and  when  every  one  beside  was  still 
afraid  of  him.  Acts  ix.  27.  The  general  epistle 
which  goes  by  his  name  is  a  long  letter  referring 
largely  to  the  events  of  Christ's  life  and  suffering 
and  death,  and  dwelling  upon  the  fact  that  he  is 
the  Son  of  God  and  Saviour  of  the  world.  The 
document  is  by  many  regarded  as  genuine.  It 
is  in  the  "  Codex  Siniaticus."  Origen  calls  it  "a 
9 


130  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

catholic  epistle."  Dupin,  Dr.  Mill,  Archbishop 
Wake,  and  others  admit  its  authenticity ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  Neander  and  Donaldson  think  it 
has  no  claim  to  be  considered  authentic.  Mos- 
heim's  opinion  is  that  it  was  written  by  a  man 
called  Barnabas,  "  not  wanting  in  piety,  but  of  a 
weak  and  superstitious  character,"  and  "  the  early 
Christians,  led  away  by  a  name  for  which  they 
entertained  the  highest  reverence,  attributed  it  to 
the  friend  and  companion  of  St.  Paul." 

Whether  genuine  or  not,  one  thing  is  certain, 
it  makes  no  allusion  to  anything  unusual  in  the 
birth  of  Jesus,  as  any  one  may  see  for  himself, 
since  this  also  is  included  in  the  "  Apocryphal 
New  Testament,"  before  referred  to. 

4.  The  Shepherd  of  Hermas  is  the  next  Chris- 
tian writer.  His  extant  works  are  divided  into 
three  books,  "  Visions,"  "  Commands,"  and  "  Si- 
militudes." There  is  a  great  diversity  of  opinion 
as  to  the  character  of  these  works,  and  the  time 
and  place  of  their  composition.  Some  think  the 
writer  is  the  Hermas  referred  to  by  St.  Paul. 
Romans  xvi.  14.  Others  suppose  he  was  a  broth- 
er of  Pius  I.  Bishop  of  Rome  in  154,  and  that  he 
lived  and  wrote  in  Italy.  Mosheim  doubts  if  the 
writer  was  sane.     Neander  says  his  works  were 


THE   FATHERS.  131 

in  high  repute,  in  the  second  century.  Origen 
often  quotes  them,  as  did  Eusebius  and  Athana- 
sius.  Donaldson  regards  them  as  very  interest- 
ing; and  to  those  who  call  them  silly,  he  says 
that  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress  would  have 
seemed  absurd  to  Latin  critics.  He  adds  that 
Bunsen  compares  them  to  Dante's  "Divina  Corn- 
media.^ 

^Bnt  it  should  be  added  that  Bunsen  compares  them  only  in 
certain  points,  which  he  names  as  follows:  "It  is  very  remark- 
able that  Hermas  has  performed  his  task  with  the  same  religious 
respect  for  the  historical  individuality  of  his  person  that  Dante 
exhibits  nearly  twelve  centuries  later;  and  moreover,  we  do  not 
scruple  to  say,  reveals  not  only  an  equal  inteusity  of  religious 
belief,  but  a  far  greater  hopefulness  for  the  future ;  therefore 
really  a  much  stronger  faith  in  the  victory  of  the  true  world- 
transforming  Christianity  than  was  possessed  by  the  great 
mediaeval  Florentine.  Both  present  us  with  a  picture  of  the  in- 
ward history  of  the  soul,  of  its  awakening  from  selfishness,  and 
the  mad  pursuit  of  sensual  pleasure,  to  faith  in  the  Divine 
redeeming  love,  and  of  the  passage  through  a  purifying  state  of 
suffering  to  the  blessedness  of  peace ;  both  depict  these  changes 
as  taking  place  after  the  close  of  the  earthly  life.  But  while  the 
prophet  of  the  Middle  Ages  nowhere  expresses  any  hope  for 
the  earthly  life  of  Christendom,  for  the  existing  ecclesiastical 
form  of  God's  kingdom,  but,  on  the  contrary,  transfers  all  blessed- 
ness and  all  just  retribution  to  the  future  world,  Hermas,  in  the 
very  midst  of  persecution,  nay,  on  the  eve  of  a  new  persecution 
which  he  sees  to  be  impending,  with  the  eye  of  his  spirit  gazes 
with  rapture  on  the  magnificent   expansion  of  the  kingdom  of 


132  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

In  bulk  they  make  a  quarter  part  of  the 
"  Apocryphal  New  Testament."  They  refer  to 
the  leading  events  of  Christ's  life,  deaths  and  res- 
urrection ;  but  throughout  the  whole  there  is  no 
hint  of  anything  extraordinary  in  his  birth. 
Donal'dson  says,  "  The  writer's  views  in  regard  to 
Christ  are  especially  Ebionistic." 

In  coming  down  now  to  the  early  part  of  the 
second  half  of  the  second  century,  we  meet  with 
five  Christian  writers  who  were  neai-ly  contempo- 
raries, —  Hegesippus,  Athenagoras,  Theophilus, 
Tatian,  and  Justin  Martyr.  We  will  give  a 
glance  at  each  in  the  order  in  which  we  have 
here  named  them. 

5.  Hegesippus  was  a  converted  Jew,  who  visited 
Corinth  and  Rome  about  the  year  170.  He 
wrote  the  history  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  from  the 
death  of  Christ  to  his  own  time ;  but  nothing  of 
it  remains  except  some  scattered  fragments,  from 
which  it  appears  that  it  was  a  book  of  notes, 
recollections,  and  scraps  of  information.  Donald- 
son says  he  speaks  of  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God, 
and  this  is  about  all  the  doctrinal  information  we 
get  from  him.  There  is  no  reference  whatever  to 
a  supposed  miraculous  birth. 

God  that  was  destined  to  replace  the  moribund  vitality  of  the 
Greek  and  Roman  world." —  God  in  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  83. 


THE   FATHERS.  133 

6.  Athenagoras  was  of  Alexandria,  and  was  a 
lea;der  of  a  school  there.  He  became  a  Christian, 
and  published  a  defense  of  the  Christians  about 
the  year  168.  Two  works  of  bis  are  extant,  the 
defense  above  alluded  to,  and  a  small  treatise  on 
the  resurrection.  Critics  speak  of  him  as  writ- 
ing in  a  clear  and  strong  style,  and  pronounce  his 
defense  of  the  Christians  the  best  produced  in 
that  age.  He  gives  a  full  account  of  the  Chris- 
tian system,  and  dwells  particularly  upon  its 
power  to  purify  and  ennoble  the  conduct  of  man. 
Following  the  style  of  the  Gnostic  writers  he  calls 
the  Logos  the  reason  of  God,  but  he  has  nothing 
to  say  about  a  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus. 

7.  Theophilus  was  of  Antioch.  Eusebius  says 
he  was  the  sixth  overseer  of  the  church  in  that 
city.  The  only  extant  work  of  his  is  addressed 
to  Autolycus,  designed  to  show  the  falsity  of 
heathenism,  and  the  truth  of  Christianity.  For 
this  purpose  he  cites  the  chief  doctrines  and  pre- 
cepts of  the  Gospels  :  but  there  is  no  allusion  to 
anything  miraculous  in  the  birth  of  Christ. 

8.  Tatian,  a  Syrian,  brought  up  a  heathen, 
was  a  traveling  lecturer,  but  became  converted 
to  Christianity,  and  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  his 
leanins:  towards  Gnosticism  and  asceticism.     He 


134  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

left  several  works,  only  one  of  which  is  extant  — 
an  Oration  to  the  Greeks,  commended  by  Euse- 
bius  and  Origen.  His  object  is  to  show  that 
there  is  much  in  what  the  Greeks  call  barbarian 
religions  which  is  worthy  of  their  notice.  He  de- 
nounces the  Greek  mythology,  and  holds  up  for 
imitation  the  pure  morals  of  the  Christians.  He 
regards  the  Logos  as  the  power  of  reason,  ema- 
nating from  God  as  a  light  emanates  from  a  burn- 
ing torch  ;  but  he  gives  no  account  of  the  birth 
of  Christ  as  differing  from  the  birth  of  others. 

9.  Justin  Martyr  was  born  at  Neapolis,  near 
Sichem,  in  Samaria,  about  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century.  He  is  supposed  to  have  been  of 
Roman  descent,  at  any  rate  was  not  a  Jew  by 
birth.  He  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the 
prevailing  systems  of  philosophy,  —  the  Stoic,  the 
Pythagorean,  the  Platonic,  —  but  none  of  them 
satisfied  him.  One  day  as  he  was  walking  near 
the  sea- shore  —  we  are  not  told  what  shore  —  he 
met  an  old  man  of  gentle  and  venerable  appear-  , 
ance  who  talked  with  him  about  the  object  of 
life,  the  existence  of  God,  the  soul  of  man  ;  and 
finally  called  his  attention  to  the  Hebrew  proph- 
ets, through  whom  the  gates  of  light  might  be 
opened  to  him,  and  God  and  Christ  might  give 


THE  FATHERS.  135 

him  understanding.  It  may  have  been  one  who 
had  himself  personally  seen  Jesus.  "  And  sud- 
denly," said  Justin,  "  a  fire  was  lighted  in  my 
soul,  and  I  w^as  possessed  with  a  love  of  the  proph- 
ets, and  of  those  men  who  are  Christ's  friends." 

We  know  little  of  the  events  of  Justin's  life, 
and  the  most  important  thing  that  we  know  is 
that  he  published  a  defense  of  Christians  ad- 
dressed to  Antoninus  Pius,  another  work  of  a 
similar  kind  addressed  to  Marcus  Aurelius,  a 
Dialogue  with  Trypho,  the  Jew,  and  a  few  other 
works  of  less  value.  They  mark  him  as  one  of 
the  most  important  of  the  early  Christian  writers. 
Such  was  the  result  of  that  chance  conversation 
by  the  sea-shore. 

He  is  regarded  as  a  man  of  good  culture  and 
extensive  reading,  but  not  a  profound  thinker, 
nor  a  systematic  reason er.  He  was  not  a  theolo- 
gian, nor  an  ecclesiastic,  but  rather  a  philosopher ; 
and  he  wore  the  mantle  of  a  philosopher  as  long 
as  he  lived.  He  wins  our  love  by  his  bold  and 
manly  address  to  the  Roman  Emperor,  to  whom 
he  writes,  "  We  can  receive  no  iujury  from  you 
unless  we  are  workers  of  iniquity.  You  can  kill 
us  ;  injure  us  you  cannot." 

He  conceived  of   Christ  as  the  chief  anscel  of 


136  THE   BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

God,  the  Logos-agent  of  the  Ahnighty,  whose 
offices  are  recorded  throughout  the  Old  Testa- 
ment history.  He  refers  to  the  events  of  Christ's 
life  as  we  find  them  recorded  in  the  Gospels.  He 
is  the  first  writer,  we  believe,  who  describes  Christ 
as  not  born  of  human  parents.  He  believed  that 
the  Logos  of  God,  which  in  the  Old  Testament 
ages  had  assumed  so  many  forms,  might  in  these 
latter  times  come  in  the  form  of  man  without 
human  seed  ;  and  this,  as  he  says,  was  exactly 
parallel  to  what,  as  the  Grecians  taught,  had 
happened  to  many  sons  of  Jupiter. 

Yet  this  view  of  Christ's  birth  is  a  point  to 
which  he  refers  only  incidentally,  without  as- 
signing any  great  importance  to  it  ;  the  reason 
of  wliicli  is  obvious,  for  he  adds,  "  Some  of  my 
friends,  of  our  Christian  sect,  aTro  tov  rjixerepov 
yeVous,  maintain  that  Christ  was  born  of  human 
parents ;  "  and  in  another  place,  in  a  list  of  her- 
etics, he  did  not  include  the  Ebionites,  who  never 
believed  the  miraculous  birth. 

Here,  then,  is  the  first  suggestion  of  anything 
miraculous  in  the  birth  of  Christ.  It  first  ap- 
pears nearly  two  centuries  after  his  birth  ;  and 
here  no  prominence  is  assigned  to  it,  and  it  is 
coupled  with  the    distinct  admission   that  some 


THE   FATHERS.  137 

did  not  believe  it.  What  is  equally  surprising 
is,  that  for  his  own  faith  in  Christ's  supernatural 
birth  Justin  appeals  to  no  testimony  or  traditions 
which  must  have  existed  at  his  time,  had  the 
event  occurred  or  been  generally  believed;  but 
finds  an  argument  for  it  in  the  heathen  genealo- 
gies of  the  gods.  It  is  to  be  added,  that  Justin 
did  not  know  the  Hebrew  language,  and  perhaps 
was  not  therefore  able  to  appreciate  the  linguistic 
reasons  which  had  kept  the  apostles  and  fathers 
before  him  fi-om  assigning  to  the  stories  in  St. 
Luke  the  sense  which  he  attached  to  them. 

We  have  made  a  study  of  succeeding  Fathers  of 
the  Church,  such  as  Cyprian,  Tertullian,  Origen, 
with  a  view  of  bringing  forward  the  statements 
of  their  belief  concerning  the  birth  of  Jesus. 
But  to  extend  our  examination  of  their  writ- 
ings any  farther  would  be  giving  a  dispropor- 
tionate attention  to  this  point;  nor  is  it  really 
necessary,  since  the  remark  in  general  terms  is 
sufficient  that,  subsequent  to  the  point  of  time  to 
which  we  have  no^v  arrived,  allusions  to  a  sup- 
posed miraculous  birth  of  Christ  are  found  more 
or  less  distinctly  in  nearly  all  Christian  writers. 
The  prominence  that  was  now  given  to  this 
dogma,  through  the    causes   adverted  to   in  our 


138  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

fifth  chapter ;  the  new  style  of  language  in  regard 
to  it  that  now  came  into  fashion ;  and  the  multi- 
tudinous speculations  and  absurd  exegesis  to 
which  it  gave  rise,  will  be  sufficiently  apparent 
by  a  glance,  which  we  propose  to  give  in  the  next 
chapter,  at  the  modes  of  patristic  reasoning. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PATRISTIC   REASONING. 

T  N  the  above  review  of  the  writings  of  the  ear- 
liest  Fathers,  we  have  seen  that  there  was  no 
allusion  to  the  miraculous  birth  of  Christ  in  the 
extant  works  of  those  authors  who  immediately 
succeeded  the  apostles.  It  is  only  when  we 
come  down  to  the  latter  part  of  the  second  cent- 
ury that  we  find  the  first  traces  of  that  dogma. 

It  may  be  of  some  service  to  place  directly 
under  the  eye  a  synopsis  of  the  results  we  have 
thus  far  reached. 

St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  have  annexed  to 
their  Gospels  some  detached  family  traditions,  to 
which  were  ascribed  but  little  importance,  as 
these  contained  merely  private  reminiscences  of 
the  birth  of  Jesus. 

St.  Mark  and  St.  John  do  not  record  them  at 
all. 

The  sermons  of  the  first  preachers  of  the  Gos- 
pel, reported  so  fully  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
make  no  mention  of  them. 


140  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

The  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  St.  Peter,  and 
St.  John  do  not  relate  them. 

Clemens  Romanus,  the  first  Christian  writer 
after  the  apostles,  is  silent  in  regard  to  any 
thing  supernatural  in  the  birth  of  Christ. 

To  him  succeeded  Polycarp,  who  is  equally 
silent. 

Barnabas,  a  companion,  as  is  supposed,  of  St. 
Paul,  is  the  next  Christian  writer,  and  he  does 
not  refer  to  it. 

The  same  remark  is  to  be  made  of  the  Shep- 
herd of  Hernias. 

Then  come  Hegesippus,  the  Church  historian, 
and  Athenagoras  of  Alexandria,  and  Theophilus 
of  Antioch,  and  Tatian  the  Syrian,  who  are  all 
equally  silent  on  this  point. 

Justin  Martyr,  in  the  second  century,  is  the 
first  writer  who  sjoeaks  of  something  miraculous 
in  the  birth  of  Christ,  to  which  view  he  seems  to 
have  been  led  by  his  heathen  training,  as  such  a 
birth  Avas  similar  to  what  had  happened  to  sons 
of  Jupiter;  but  he  assigns  no  prominence  to  this 
point,  and  says  expressly  that  some  Christians 
did  not  believe  it. 

To  show  that  in  the  first  generations  of  Chris- 
tians this  dogma  of  a  miraculous  conception  was 


PATRISTIC   REASONING.  141 

unknown,  there  is  a  still  more  important  proof  to 
be  now  submitted,  and  a  proof  which  must  be 
regarded  as  decisive. 

Its  early  absence  is  distinctly  and  expressly 
admitted  by  those  who  began  to  broach  it  and 
maintain  it ;  and  they  assigned  special  reasons 
why  it  had  not  before  been  received. 

The  facts  of  the  case  were  as  follows :  When 
Christian  preachers  and  writers  first  began  to 
attach  so  much  importance  to  the  records  of 
Christ's  birth,  surprise  was  naturally  awakened; 
and  they  were  told  to  look  to  the  traditions  of 
the  Church,  for  it  was  well  known  that  these 
supernatural  interpretations  were  of  recent  ori- 
gin, and  were  unknown  to  the  first  Christian  be- 
lievers. 

How  was  this  objection  met?  It  was  admitted 
that  the  real  facts  about  Christ's  birth  had  not 
before  been  understood,  and  reasons  were  given 
why  they  had  been  lately  discovered.  If  we  find 
these  reasons  to  be  very  weak  and  absurd,  they 
are  none  the  less  interesting  in  view  of  the  point 
which  we  have  here  in  mind. 

And  now  what  are  these  reasons  ? 

If  our  readers  have  ever  turned  over  the  leaves 
of  the  writings  of  the  Fathers,  some  of  them  now 


142  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

quite  accessible  in  the  beautiful  English  "Ante- 
Nicene  Library  of  the  Fathers,"  they  will  be  pre- 
pared for  the  strange  mixture  of  a  sincere,  earnest 
faith,  with  feeble  puerilities,  and  foolish  fancies, 
and  solemn  absurdities,  which  there  abound. 
We  may  begin  our  citations  with  almost  any  one, 
and  we  will  turn  first  to  no  obscure  name,  to  St. 
Chrysostom  —  him  of  the  golden  mouth. 

In  reference  to  the  miraculous  birth  he  ob- 
serves :  "  This  was  concealed  and  managed  as  a 
great  and  wonderful  thing  to  preserve  the  Virgin, 
and  cover  her  from  wicked  suspicions.  For  if 
this  had  been  known  to  the  Jews  from  the  be- 
ginning, they  would  have  stoned  the  Virgin,  abus- 
ing her  for  what  would  have  been  said,  and  have 

condemned  her  for  adultery Nor  did  the 

Virgin  herself  dare  to  confess  this.  For  observe 
how  she  calls  Joseph  the  father  of  Jesus,  when 
she  said  to  him,  '  Behold  thy  father  and  I  have 
sought  thee.'  If  the  truth  had  been  suspected, 
Jesus  would  not  have  been  thought  to  have  been 
the  son  of  David  ;  and  this  not  being  admitted, 
many  mischiefs  would  have  arisen.  On  the  same 
account  the  angels  did  not  mention  this  except  to 
Mary  and  Joseph  only,  but  not  to  the  shepherds, 
though  they  acquainted  them  with  the  fact  of  the 
birth." 


PATRISTIC   REASONING.  143 

But  St.  Chrysostom  does  not  tell  us  by  what 
means  the  full  facts  became  known  two  or  three 
hundred  years  after  the  event.  It  could  not  have 
been  from  the  narratives  of  Matthew  and  Luke, 
for  these  had  long  been  read  without  deriving 
from  them  the  dogma  in  question.  Was  there 
any  special  revelation  in  later  times  ?  Or  how 
did  the  "  management  "  that  shut  out  the  mis- 
chiefs, and  screened  the  Virgin,  and  taught  her 
to  prevaricate,  unfold  the  knowledge  of  the  case 
to  St.  Chrysostom  ? 

Of  course  it  occurred  to  many  to  ask,  If  Mary 
was  the  only  parent  of  Jesus,  why  was  she  mar- 
ried at  all  ?  Had  there  been  no  marriage,  the 
presumption  of  her  virginity,  and  the  exclusion 
of  any  paternity,  would  have  been  more  probable. 
But  answers  were  at  hand. 

St.  Jerome  gives  three  reasons  why  Mary  was 
married  to  Joseph.  1.  That  it  might  appear  that 
Jesus  Avas  descended  from  David.  2.  Lest  Mary 
should  have  been  stoned  as  an  adulteress.  3.  That 
she  might  have  a  guardian  in  the  flight  into 
Egypt. 

St.  Basil  and  Theophylact  take  a  still  higher 
flight  in  accounting  for  Mary's  marriage.  St. 
Basil  says,   "  Mary  was  married  to  Josej^h  that 


144  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

the  devil  might  not  suspect  that  she  was  a  vir- 
gin, for  he  knew  that  Christ  was  to  be  born  of  a 
virgin."  In  the  same  strain  argues  Theophylact, 
who  says,  "  Mary  was  married  that  she  by  this 
means  might  deceive  the  devil.  For  the  devil, 
having  heard  that  Christ  was  to  be  born  of  a  vir- 
gin, observed  the  virgins.  She  therefore  married 
Joseph  to  deceive  the  deceiver." 

Following  in  this  same  strain,  Damascenes  says, 
"  The  virginity  of  Mar^^,  her  delivery,  and  the 
birth  of  Christ,  were  all  concealed  from  the 
devil." 

It  was  all  plain  to  St.  Ambrose  why  Jesus  him- 
self never  alluded  to  the  miraculous  conception, 
for  that  writer  says,  "  Our  Lord  rather  chose 
that  his  origin  should  be  unknown  than  that  his 
mother's  chastity  should  be  questioned."  The 
fact  of  his  divine  origin  was  quite  subordinate  to 
a  false  opinion  about  his  mother. 

Curious,  too,  is  it  to  see  how  many  a  j^fiori 
reasons  the  Fathers  had  for  the  birth  of  Christ 
from  a  virgin.  In  that  age  they  all  knew  exactly 
how  it  ought  to  take  place.  Cyril  of  Alexandria, 
the  same  whose  contest  with  Nestorius  we  have 
described  in  a  former  chapter,  said :  "  Christ 
ought  to  have  such  a  birth  that  his  presence  and 


PATRISTIC   REASONING.  145 

manifestation  to  the  world  might  have  something 
in  it  worthy  of  a  God." 

Lactantius  said  that  as  God  was  without  father 
and  mother,  so  the  son  had  to  be  born  twice,  that 
he  might  be  born  without  father  and  mother ; 
for  he  was  first  spiritually  generated  by  God  the 
Father  only,  and  so  without  mother ;  and  then 
again  he  was  carnally  born  by  the  Virgin  alone, 
and  so  without  father. 

St.  Augustine  thouglit  that  the  salvation  of  the 
female  sex  was  particularly  intended  by  Christ 
being  born  of  a  woman  only  ;  for  as  he  was  de- 
rived solely  from  a  woman,  he  would  naturally 
feel  a  deeper  interest  in  woman's  lot;  while  if  he 
had  had  a  father  as  well  as  a  mother,  he  might 
have  taken  more  than  a  due  care  of  the  male  sex. 
Such  Mas  St.  Augustine's  reasoning. 

St.  IrensBus  asks.  If  Christ  were  born  of  Joseph, 
how  could  he  have  surpassed  Solomon  or  David  ? 
Were  he  produced  in  the  same  manner,  and  their 
descendant,  Omnipotence  could  have  made  noth- 
ing more  of  him  than  of  them. 

Justin  Martyr  said  that  Christ  was  born  of  a 
virgin,  that  by  the  same  means  that  disobedience 
came  by  a  word,  that  is  of  the  serpent,  by  the 
same  means  it  should  be  terminated  by  a  word. 

10 


146  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

For  Eve,  a  virgin,  uncorrupt,  conceived  by  the 
word  of  the  serpent,  and  brought  forth  death ; 
so  the  Virgin  Mary  conceived  by  the  word  of 
the  angel,  and  brought  forth  deliverance  from 
death. 

The  same  conceit  was  taken  up  by  others. 
Cyril  of  Jerusalem  said  that  "  as  death  came  by 
the  virgin  Eve,  so  it  was  necessary  that  life 
should  be  brought  by  a  virgin."  But  St.  Am- 
brose vaiied  the  comparison,  for  he  said,  "  Adam 
was  made  of  the  virgin  earth,  and  Christ  was 
made  from  a  virgin  woman." 

St.  Chrysostom  knew  exactly  what  sort  of  a 
birth  it  was  fitting  Jesus  should  have,  for  he  said, 
"  It  is  not  because  marriage  is  a  bad  thing,  but 
because  virginity  is  better ;  and  it  behooved  the 
Lord  of  all  to  have  a  more  splendid  entrance  into 
the  world  than  ours,  for  it  was  the  entrance  of  a 
king.  He  ought  to  be  born  of  a  woman  in  com- 
mon with  us  ;  but  to  be  born  without  marriage 
which  makes  him  greater  than  us." 

St.  Athanasius  also  dwells  on  this  thought  that 
Christ's  birth  makes  him  greater  than  all,  for  his 
eloquence  flames  out  as  follows  :  "  What  right- 
eous person,  what  holy  prophet  or  patriarch  in 
all   the    sacred  writings,   was    born   of   a  virgin 


PATRISTIC   REASONING.  147 

only  ?  or  what  woman  was  sufficient  for  the  con- 
ception of  a  man  without  a  man?  " 

This  opinion,  that  it  was  specially  honorable  to 
Jesus  to  be  without  a  father,  is  frequently  pre- 
sented in  these  writings,  as  if  what  we  think  is 
honorable  is  to  decide  our  view  of  what  God  has 
done.  We  might  think  it  more  honorable  still  if 
Jesus  had  had  no  mother,  had  not  been  born  at 
all,  or  not  born  an  infant,  or  not  born  in  a  stable; 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  see  where  such  human  ideas 
of  what  is  honorable  might  stop. 

The  Emperor  Constantine,  in  his  oration  before 
the  Council  of  Nice,  says,  "  When  Christ  was  to 
live  among  men  he  invented  a  new  way  of  being 
born  ;  for  there  was  a  conception  without  a  mar- 
riage, a  delivery  of  a  pure  virgin,  and  a  young 
woman  was  the  Mother  of  God."  This  idea  of 
inventing  a  new  way  of  birth  has  been  reproduced 
in  recent  times. ^ 

In  reviewing  the  above  citations,  perhaps  no 
one  can  read  them  without  seeing  that  we  here 
meet  many  expressions  wholly  different  from  any- 
thing found  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles  and 
of  their  first  successors.     The  entire  body  of  the 

1  See  Disquisitions  and  Notes  on  the  Gospel  of  Matthew.  By 
John  H.  Morison,  Boston,  1860,  p.  37. 


148  THE   BIRTH    OF  JESUS. 

literature  of  these  last  named  writers  does  not 
offer  so  much  about  the  birth  of  Christ  as  we 
may  find  on  one  page  of  the  writings  of  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries.  The  strata  of  thought  is 
as  abruptly  different  as  any  strata  of  gravel  and 
clay  or  granite  and  trap  the  geologist  knows. 

The  allegorical  mode  of  interpretation  which  so 
much  flourished  in  that  age  opened  a  wide  door 
for  the  loss  of  any  sound  practical  sense,  and  for 
the  entrance  of  any  improbable  conceit.  It  is 
important  to  mark  the  fact,  that  this  mode  came 
into  vogue  among  those  who  were  out  of  the 
circle  of  the  strongest  Jewish  influence,  and  were 
in  contact  with  Greek  civilization.  Hence  they 
were  not  hampered  by  Hebrew  lexicography  or 
traditions.  It  was  the  idea  of  Origen  that  every 
passage  of  Scripture  had  a  spiritual  element,  and 
sometimes,  as  he  maintained,  a  spiritual  truth  in 
a  corporeal  falsehood.  With  such  latitude  of  in- 
terpretation, how  many  prophecies  and  hints  of 
the  miraculous  birth  of  Christ  might  be  found ! 

We  read  in  Psalm  cxxxix.  16,  "  In  thy  book 
all  my  members  were  written."  Epiphanius 
thought  that  David  said  this  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  and  the  book  was  the  Virgin's  womb.  In 
the  Song  of  Solomon  iv.  12,  we  read,  "  A  garden 


PATRISTIC   REASONING.  149 

enclosed  is  my  sister,  my  spouse,  a  spring  shut  up, 
a  fountain  sealed."  This  was  often  referred  to 
the  Virgin  ;  and  the  visitor  to  Rome  may  see  this 
text  cited  on  the  tasteless  monument  in  the  Piazza 
di  Spagna,  erected  in  honor  of  the  dogma  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception.  In  Psalm  cxxxix.  13, 
we  read,  "  Thou  hast  covered  me  in  my  mother's 
womb."  Eusebius  applies  this  to  Christ,  whose 
miraculous  conception  was  hid  from  the  world. 

In  the  very  first  verse  of  Genesis  a  prediction 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  was  found.  "  In  the  begin- 
ning God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth." 
That  means  Joachim  and  Anna,  the  father  and 
mother  of  the  Virgin.  "  And  the  earth  was  with- 
out form  and  void."  That  is,  Anna  was  barren. 
''  And  darkness  was  on  the  face  of  the  deep." 
This  is  the  sorrow  she  felt.  "And  the  spirit  of 
God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters."  That 
is,  the  Holy  Ghost  giving  conception  to  Anna. 
"  And  God  said,  let  there  be  light."  That  is,  the 
Virgin  was  born. 

Probably  it  is  such  exegesis  as  this  that  led 
the  poet  to  say :  — 

"  The  fly-blown  text  conceives  an  alien  brood, 
And  turns  to  maggots  what  was  meant  for  food." 

It  may  be  that  we  have  now  seen   enough  of 


150  THE     BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

the  Fathers  to  lead  us  to  indorse  the  opinion  of 
Milton,  who  says :  "  Whatsoever  time  or  the 
heedless  hand  of  blind  chance  hath  drawn  from 
of  old  to  this  present,  in  her  huge  drag-net, 
whether  fish  or  sea- weed,  shells  or  shrubs,  un- 
picked, unchosen,  —  these  are  the  Fathers.  See- 
ing, therefore,  some  men  deeply  conversant  in 
books  have  had  so  little  care  of  late  to  give  the 
world  a  better  account  of  their  reading,  than  by 
divulging  needless  tractates  stuffed  with  the  spe- 
cious names  of  Ignatius  and  Polycarp,  with  frag- 
ments of  old  mythologies  and  legends  to  distract 
and  stagger  the  multitude  of  credulous  readers, 
and  mislead  them  from  their  strong  guards  and 
places  of  safety  under  the  tuition  of  Holy  Writ, 
it  came  into  my  thoughts  to  persuade  myself,  set- 
ting all  distances  and  nice  respects  aside,  that  I 
could  do  religion  and  my  country  no  better  ser- 
vice for  the  time,  than  by  doing  my  utmost 
endeavor  to  recall  the  people  of  God  from  this 
vain  foraging  after  straw,  and  to  reduce  them  to 
their  firm  stations  under  the  standard  of  the 
Gospel,  by  making  appear  to  them,  first  the  in- 
sufficiency, next  the  inconveniency,  and  lastly 
the  impiety  of  these  gay  testimonies  that  their 
great  doctors  would  bring  them  to  dote  on."  ^ 

^  Miltou's  Prelatical  Episcopacij. 


PATRISTIC   REASONING.  151 

We  are  apt  to  suppose  that  the  fact  of  their 
nearness  to  tlie  times  of  the  apostles  gives  the 
Fathers  an  authorit}'  superior  to  all  other  writers. 
We  forget,  as  Macaulay  has  well  said,  "  that  their 
disadvantages  in  other  respects  place  them  below 
a  third  rate  student  of  Scripture  of  a  later  age, 
just  as  a  man  with  bad  eyes  may  not  see  an  ob- 
ject so  clearly  at  fifty  yards,  as  another  with  good 
eyes  may  see  it  at  half  a  mile.  Almost  all  the 
Fathers  had  very  bad  eyes,  and  they  attempted 
to  remedy  the  defect  with  worse  spectacles." 

That  among  such  men  there  should  gradually 
grow  up  a  misinterpretation  of  the  records  of  the 
birth  of  Jesus,  and  an  assignment  to  them  of  an 
importance  not  at  first  thought  of,  will  seem  all 
the  more  probable  if  we  remember  two  facts 
which  marked  the  primitive  age  of  Christianity. 

The  first  is  that  some  time  elapsed  before  the 
writings  of  the  New  Testament  were  reverenced 
as  a  part  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Those  writings 
were  not  composed  during  the  generation  that 
was  contemporary  with  Jesus.  Even  after  they 
had  been  gathered  into  the  form  in  which  we  now 
have  them,  converts  from  Judaism  could  not  at 
once  have  held  them  in  the  same  light  in  which 
they  regarded  their  older  sacred  books. 


152  THE   BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

Of  course  the  life  of  Jesus  was  of  deep  interest 
to  them.  Yet  it  was  not  the  subject  of  the  crit- 
ical study  elsewhere  bestowed.  Of  this  we  have 
plenary  proof.  Among  the  immense  mass  of  ex- 
tant writings  of  the  Fathers,  it  is  surprising  to 
mark  what  a  vast  proportion  is  commentary  on 
the  Old  Testament.  We  see  the  cause  of  this 
only  when  we  reflect  how  slowly  the  reverence 
for  that  book  would  be  shared  by  woi'ks  which 
must  have  seemed  so  modern.  There  was  a  con- 
stant attempt  to  prove  that  Christ  was  foretold 
and  described  in  the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the 
Psalms,  —  the  same  tendency  so  manifest  in  the 
evangelists,  who  pored  over  the  Jewish  Scrij^tures 
to  find  predictions  of  events  in  the  life  of  Jesus. 
It  is  probable,  judging  from  the  titles  of  books 
that  have  come  down  to  us,  that  in  the  first  years 
of  the  Gospels  The  Song  of  Solomon  received 
more  critical  study  than  the  Gospels  themselves. 
Origen,  between  A.  D.  215  and  254,  gave  twenty- 
eight  years  of  his  life,  terminated  at  this  last  date, 
to  a  critical  study  of  the  Old  Testament,  bringing 
to  the  task  vast  learning,  and  unexampled  bold- 
ness and  acuteness  of  speculation,  while  he  be- 
stowed comparatively  little  attention  upon  that 
New  Testament  which,  as  he  seems  not  to  have 


PATRISTIC   REASONING.  153 

suspected,  would  soon  eclipse  in  interest  the  elder 
Scriptures.  We  need  not  say  how  favorable  all 
this  was  to  the  creeping  in  of  wide-spread  mis- 
conceptions of  the  real  meaning  of  the  Gospels. 

But,  secondly,  what  critical  study  there  was 
among  the  first  genei'ations  of  believers  was  not 
only  devoid  of  any  scientific  accuracy,  but  was 
worthless  through  false  rules  of  interpretation. 
The  reader  of  the  preceding  pages  has  seen  evi- 
dence enough  of  the  love  of  allegory,  and  the 
search  for  mystical  but  baseless  meanings.  Men 
then  applied  to  the  words  of  the  evangelical  nar- 
rative "•  not  an  historical  criticism,  but  abstruse 

metaphysical  conceptions The  world  and 

society  presented  conditions  less  and  less  favor- 
able to  sane  criticism.  It  was  under  these  con- 
ditions that  the  dogma  now  called  orthodox  grew 
up."  1 

Thus  an  age  of  puerile  speculations  still  further 
favored  the  rise  of  tlie  misconceptions  on  which 
we  have  dwelt,  and  which  in  time  acquired  the 
dogmatic  form  set  forth  in  the  "Apostles'  Creed," 
so  called,  to  the  history  and  meaning  of  which  the  • 
next  chapter  will  be  devoted. 

1  Literature  and  Dogma,  pp.  276,  282,  by  Matthew  Arnold. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   apostles'    CEEED. 

TT  may  be  thought  that  the  expressions  in  the 
*  "Apostles'  Creed,"  "  Conceived  of  the  Holy- 
Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,"  refute  the 
leading  idea  of  this  book  ;  and  it  becomes  neces- 
sary therefore  to  notice  this  symbol  of  faith.  An 
account  of  its  origin  may  be  found  in  various 
ecclesiastical  histories,  and  several  distinct  trea- 
tises have  unfolded  its  history  and  explained  its 
meaning.  The  well-known  and  approved  work 
in  English,  by  Sir  Peter  King,  has  long  been 
before  the  public ;  and  a  more  extended  and 
thorough  publication  in  French  has  lately  ap- 
peared, entitled  "  Le  Symbole  des  ApStres,"  by 
Michel  Nicolas,  Paris,  1867. 

It  will  occur  to  every  one  that  there  is  no  al- 
lusion to  this  Creed  in  the  sermons  or  epistles  of 
the  first  preachers  of  Christianity,  nor  is  it  named 
by  any  writer  in  the  earliest  ages  of  the  Church. 
Had  it  been  the  work  of  the  apostles,  it  would 


THP:   APOSTLES'    CREED.  155 

often  have  been  appealed  to  in  the  sharp  con- 
troversies of  those  times  ;  nor  is  this  negative 
evidence  the  only  proof  that  it  was  composed  in 
a  later  day. 

Not  till  the  end  of  the  third  century  do  we 
meet  with  any  reference  to  this  Creed  as  having 
the  authority  of  the  apostles.  Of  course,  some 
of  the  articles  it  embraces  had  been  frequently 
named  before  as  matters  of  belief.  When  Philip 
baptized  the  Eunuch,  Acts  viii.  37,  the  latter 
said,  "  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of 
God."  This  was  all  the  creed  the  apostle  re- 
quired. To  that  simple  profession  of  faith  point 
after  point  was  afterward  added,  as  we  shall  soon 
see ;  but  not  till  about  three  hundred  years  after- 
wards were  all  these  points  brought  together  in 
a  form  that  claimed  apostolic  authority. 

The  truth  is  this  Creed  is  in  the  main  of  Roman 
Catholic  manufacture.  The  Greek  Church  never 
has  acknowledged  it.  Luther  said  it  had  no  more 
authority  than  the  symbol  of  St.  Ambrose  or  St. 
Augustine.  Calvin  thought  its  origin  so  late  and 
its  author  so  uncertain  that  it  had  no  special 
value.  Zwingle  believed  there  was  no  copy  of  it 
prior  to  the  fourth  century.  Sir  Peter  King  says, 
*'  Part  of  this  Creed  was  transmitted  down  from  the 


156  THE   BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

apostles,  and  other  parts  were  afterwards  added 
by  the  governors  of  the  church  to  prevent  here- 
sies." He  says  also  that  the  first  Christians  had 
a  variety  of  symbols  of  faith,  which  were  not 
usually  committed  to  writing,  but  were  trans- 
mitted orally  with  some  feeling  of  secrecy  and 
awe,  and  were  taught  to  the  baptized  ;  but  the 
profession  of  faith  did  not  take  the  form  in  which 
we  have  it  in  the  Apostles'  Creed  till  centuries 
after  Christ. 

The  French  author  we  have  referred  to  is  en- 
tirely in  accord  with  all  this,  and  says  that  no 
creed  under  the  name  of  the  apostles  can  be 
found  earlier  than  the  fourth  century,  and  adds 
that  St.  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan,  is  the  first 
writer  who  calls  a  creed  by  this  name ;  that  it 
was  in  Italy  that  this  name  was  first  generally 
used ;  that  the  Church  in  the  East  long  after 
this  did  not  receive  this  Creed,  while  the  Greek 
Church,  as  we  have  before  said,  does  not  to  this 
day  own  it. 

It  will  be  more  interesting  to  show  how,  ac- 
cording both  to  Sir  Peter  King  and  M.  Nicolas, 
the  different  articles  of  this  Creed  came  to  find 
their  place  ;  and  this  point  will  shed  still  further 
light  upon  the  time  of  its  origin.     So  far  from 


THE   APOSTLES'    CREED.  157 

being  completed  at  once,  it  received  additions 
generation  after  generation,  to  guard  against  suc- 
cessive heresies.  Crescit  eundo,  and  this  is  the 
reason  why  it  exceeded  in  length  the  true  Apos- 
tles' Creed  of  Philip  and  the  Eunuch. 

Thus  the  Creed  was  made  to  read,  "  I  believe 
in  one  God,"  not  only  in  opposition  to  pagan 
polytheism,  but,  as  King  shows,  against  some 
heretical  Christians,  who,  in  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries  taught  that  there  were  two  coeval  and 
independent  principles ;  while  others  propagated 
opinions  which  bordered  on  tritheism.  The  ap- 
proved faith  was  in  one  God  only. 

It  was  said  "  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth," 
because  the  Gnostic  heresy  of  the  early  centuries 
taught  that  matter  was  not  created  by  God,  but 
was  the  work  of  some  being  at  war  with  him,  or 
inferior  to  him.  Matter  was  believed  to  be  the 
source  of  all  impurity,  and  could  not  come  there- 
fore from  the  hands  of  an  infinitely  holy  God. 
But  the  true  doctrine  was  that  God  made  the 
earth  as  Avell  as  the  heaven. 

Nicolas  says  that  the  expression,  "  In  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord^^^  was  aimed  against  those  who 
held  that  a  multitude  of  eons  emanated  from 
God,  to  whom  allegiance  was  due.     This  article 


158  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

affirmed  Jesus  to  be  the  sole  revealer  of  God,  and 
Master  of  Christians. 

The  phrase,  "  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost," 
was  inserted,  as  both  King  and  Nicolas  show,  to 
oppose  the  opinions  of  the  Ebionites,  and  the 
Judaizing  Christians,  who  believed  that  Jesus  was 
a  son  of  Joseph  as  well  as  of  Mary.  The  next 
phrase  in  the  Creed,  "  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary," 
was  directed  against  those  who  held  that  Jesus 
had  a  corporeal  existence  only  in  appearance  ; 
that  his  body  was  a  mere  phantom  ;  had  no  sub- 
stance derived  from  his  mother.  It  was  out  of 
the  controversies  of  the  third  century,  that  this 
part  of  the  Creed  was  shaped ;  and  here  is  an- 
other proof  of  its  late  formation. 

"  Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate ; "  this  was 
placed  in  the  Creed  because  there  were  some  in 
the  second  century  who  taught  that  Christ's  body 
was  incapable  of  suffering.  "  Crucified,  dead,  and 
buried  ; "  Nicolas  says  these  expressions  are  a  lit- 
eral repetition  of  the  frequent  declarations  of  Ig- 
natius, Irenffius,  Tertullian,  and  Origen  against 
the  Doceta?. 

"  He  descended  into  Hell."  By  this  last  word 
was  denoted  Hades,  the  place  where  it  was  sup- 
posed all  departed  spirits  were  confined  prior  to 


THE   APOSTLES'    CREED.  159 

the  final  judgment.  Hence  in  the  parable  both 
Lazarus  and  Dives  are  represented  as  being  there. 
There  had  been  from  the  first  some  vague  idea 
that  the  human  soul  of  Jesus  visited  that  place 
between  the  time  of  his  death  and  his  resurrec- 
tion. To  this  it  is  supposed  St.  Peter  alludes, 
1  Peter  iii.  19  :  "  Went  and  preached  to  the  spir- 
its in  prison."  No  prominence  was  given  to  this 
point  till  in  subsequent  centuries  it  connected  it- 
self with  two  important  articles  of  faith  :  the  first, 
that  Jesus  had  a  human  soul,  in  opposition  to 
those  who  denied  his  perfect  humanity  ;  and  the 
second,  that  Jesus  went  to  the  place  of  departed 
spirits,  which  was  Purgatory,  to  carry  his  re- 
deeming work  there. 

In  our  times  probably  the  general  opinion  at- 
tached to  the  sentence,  "  He  descended  into  Hell," 
is  that  he  died ;  and  the  Episcopal  Church  does 
not  impose  any  interpretation  of  this  phrase.  But 
at  the  time  the  Creed  was  formed,  in  this  point 
there  was  something  more  meant  than  a  mere 
tautology.  King  gives  the  chief  prominence  to 
the  supposition  that  it  was  inserted  against  those 
who  thought  Christ  did  not  have  a  human  soul ; 
that  the  Logos  took  its  place. 

From  this  opinion  Nicolas  dissents.     He  says 


160  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

that  it  could  not  have  been  admitted  that  the 
mere  human  soul  of  Christ  could  carry  on  the 
work  of  redemption  in  the  place  of  departed 
spirits ;  and  besides,  it  was  held  by  the  Fathers 
that  the  Divine  nature  accompanied  Christ  to 
that  place.  He  therefore  sees  in  this  expression 
the  recognition  of  a  middle  place  between  earth 
and  heaven,  Purgatory,  where  the  Saviour  went 
to  redeem  the  pious  souls  who  had  died  in  the 
Old  Testament  ages.  Nicolas  shows  that  the  be- 
lief in  Purgatory  took  a  fresh  life  from  this  part 
of  the  Creed,  and  has  been  attached  to  it  ever 
since. 

A  like  inference  may  be  drawn  from  the  ex- 
pression in  the  Creed,  "  The  Communion  of 
Saints."  Protestants  see  in  that  clause  only  a 
recognition  of  a  common  feeling  among  all  de- 
vout men.  But  Nicolas  shows  that  this  is  by  no 
means  the  idea  which  presided  at  its  formation, 
and  which  has  been  in  all  past  ages  attached  to 
it.  It  sets  forth,  he  says,  the  fact  of  a  unity 
among  all  redeemed  souls,  on  earth  or  in  heaven ; 
and  it  is  used  chiefly  to  justify  the  invocation  of 
angels  and  saints,  and  the  very  life-blood  of  the 
clause  is  found  in  this  idea. 

Looking  at  the  Creed  as  a  whole  we  sec  at 


THE  APOSTLES'   CREED.  161 

once,  from  its  disproportions,  that  it  took  its 
shape  controversially.  Regarded  as  a  full  Chris- 
tian Creed  it  is  singularly  deficient.  Nothing  is 
said  about  the  offices,  ministrations,  and  comforts 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  great  subject  of  God 
the  Father  is  dismissed  in  a  line  or  two ;  while 
contrpverted  points  about  Christ  are  brought  for- 
ward at  greater  length.  After  all,  many  of  the 
important  verities  of  the  Christian  faitli  find  no 
statement  whatever.  It  is  more  a  polemic  weapon 
than  an  enumeration  of  the  truths  which  lie  deep- 
est in  the  believer's  heart. 

Bunsen,  in  his  book  entitled,  "  God  in  History," 
vol.  iii.  p.  55,  says,  "  The  most  ancient  formula 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed  for  which  we  have  docu- 
mentary evidence  is  that  used  in  the  church  of 
Alexandria,  A.  D.  200,  the  whole  of  which,  word 
for  word,  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  believe  in  the  only  true  God^  the  Father 
Almighty;  and  in  his  only  begotten  Son,  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Lord  and  Saviour; 

"  And  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Giver  of  life." 

The  same  writer  adds  :  "  It  was  not  until  the 
fifth  century  that  the  confession  of  faith  used  in 
public  worship,  entitled  'The  Apostles'  Creed,' 
11 


162  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

grew  out  of  the  gradual  expansion  of  this  earlier 
baptismal  formula." 

Nicolas  gives  many  versions  of  this  Creed  in 
the  early  centuries  before  it  took  the  final  shape 
in  which  we  commonly  see  it,  and  then  says :  — 

"  Rien  ne  me  semble  plus  propre  a  donner  une 
idee  exacte  au  long  travail  auquel  le  Crddo.a  6t6 
soumis  avant  d'arriver  a  sa  forme  definitive,  que 
les  remaniements  successifs  de  cet  article,  re- 
maniements  dont  il  n'est  pas  tres-difficile  de 
suivre  presque  pas  a  pas  la  serie.  Les  mention- 
ner  c'est  prouver  que  notre  formulaire  a  6te 
I'oeuvre  de  plusieurs  siecles."     Page  86. 

Thus  we  see  that  this  Creed  can  rightly  be 
called  the  Apostles'  Creed  only  in  that  general 
sense  in  which  the  college  of  cardinals  is  called 
the  Apostolic  College,  or  a  papal  ambassador  is 
called  an  Apostolic  Nuncio.  It  is  hardly  worth 
while  to  stt>te  how  much  Roman  Catholic  tradi- 
tion has  glorified  the  formation  of  this  document, 
representing  that,  before  the  apostles  left  Jeru- 
salem, the  twelve  came  together,  and  each  one 
contributed  a  sentence,  as  follows :  — 

Peter,  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty; 

John,  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth ; 


THE   APOSTLES'    CREED.  163 

James^  And  in  Jesus  Christ,  his  only  Son,  our 
Lord; 

Andrew^  Conceived  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  born 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  ; 

Philip,  Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  cru- 
cified, dead,  and  buried; 

Thomas,  Descended  to  hell,  the  third  day  he 
rose  from  the  dead  ; 

Bartholomeiv,  He  ascended  to  Heaven,  he  is 
seated  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the  Father 
Almighty ; 

Mattheiv,  From  thence  he  shall  come  to  judge 
the  quick  and  the  dead  ; 

James  the  Less,  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  Holy  Catholic  Church  ; 

Simeon,  The  Communion  of  Saints,  the  for- 
giveness of  sins ; 

Jude,  The  resurrection  of  the  body  ; 

Matthias,  The  life  everlasting.^ 

The  assignment  of  sentences  to  the  apostles 
has  been  variouslj'^  made.  There  is  an  old  Latin 
poem,  attributed  to  Saint  Bernard,  which  gives  a 

1  We  see  that  Mr.  Longfellow  has  appended  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  with  this  assignment,  to  his  Divine  Tragedy.  The  fiction 
of  the  assignment  is  not  without  some  interest  for  its  antiquity, 
but  it  was  a  fraud  perpetrated  centuries  after  the  apostolic 
age. 


164  THE    BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

different  distribution,  and  is  in  itself  of  some  in- 
terest. Perhaps  the  omission  in  it  of  the  miracu- 
lous conception  was  only  through  some  metrical 
necessity. 

Articuli  fidci  sunt  bis  sex  corde  tenendi, 
Quos  Chiisti  socii  docueruut,  pneumati  pleni : 
Credo  Deum  Patrem,  Petrus  inquit,  cuncta  creatum; 
Andreas  dixit,  Ego  credo  Jesuin  fore  Christum ; 
Conceptum,  natum,  Jacobus;  passumque,  Joannes; 
Infera,  Plulippus,  fugit ;   Thomas  que,  revixit ; 
Scendit,  Bartholomeus ;  veniet  cens(!re,  Matthams ; 
Pneuma,  Minor  Jacobus  ;  Simon,  pcccata  remittet; 
Restituit,  Judas,  carnem  ;  vitamque,  Matthias. 

We  need  not  repeat  that  this  picnic  origin, 
as  one  has  called  it,  is  a  late  invention. 

We  close  this  review  by  marking  the  fact  that 
the  first  skeletons  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  do 
not  state  a  belief  of  anything  miraculous  in  the 
birth  of  Christ.  We  have  seen  that  the  earliest 
Alexandrian  version,  quoted  above  from  Bunsen, 
has  no  clause  of  this  kind.  Such  is  the  fact  also 
of  a  sketch  of  a  summajry  of  Christian  truths, 
somewhat  resembling  the  Apostles'  Creed,  found 
in  the  writings  of  Ignatius.  It  speaks  of  faith 
in  "  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  of  the  race  of  David, 
Son  of  Mary,  who  was  veritably  born,  has  eaten 
and   drunk,  who    has  truly  suffered  persecution 


THE   APOSTLES'    CREED.  165 

under  Pontius  Pilate,  has  been  veritably  crucified 
and  was  dead,  in  the  view  of  all  who  are  in  heaven, 
upon  the  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  who  has 
truly  arisen  from  the  dead,  his  father  having 
raised  him  up  as  He  will  raise  us  up."  ^ 

It  will  be  observed  that  li6re  is  a  statement  of 
that  simpler,  earlier  faith  on  the  subject  of  the 
birth  of  Jesus,  whirh,  as  we  have  seen,  was  all 
that  the  Christians  of  the  first  ages  professed ; 
and  in  a  creed  that  has  grown  up  as  has  the 
Apostles'  Creed  no  statement  it  contains  can  be 
brought  as  an  argument  for  or  against  the  faith 
of  the  first  disciples  of  Christ. 

In  support  of  the  general  thesis  of  this  book 
there  is  another  subject  which  merits  notice.  It 
is  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  —  a  worship 
which  grew  up  contemporaneously  with  the  as- 
cription to  Jesus  of  a  supernatural  origin.  The 
next  chapter  will  cast  an  important  side-light  on 
the  point  under  discussion. 

^  Le  Symhole  des  Apdtres,  p.  13. 


CHAPTER  X. 

MAEIOLATRY. 

fllHE  adoration  of  the  Mother  of  Jesus  is  one 
of  the  consequences  of  the  misinterpretation 
of  the  records  of  his  birth ;  and  in  Roman  Cath- 
olic countries  her  image  has  taken  a  hold  upon 
the  imagination  and  affections,  which  arrests  our 
attention  and  merits  consideration. 

"  It  is  remarkable,"  says  Lecky,  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  Morals,"  "that  the  Jews,  who  of  the  three 
great  nations  of  antiquity  certainly  produced  in 
history  and  poetry  the  smallest  number  of  il- 
lustrious women,  should  have  furnished  the 
world  with  its  supreme  female  ideal  ;  and  it  is 
also  a  striking  illustration  of  the  qualities  which 
prove  most  attractive  in  woman,  that  one  of  whom 
we  know  nothing  except  her  gentleness  and  her 
sorrow,  should  have  exercised  a  magnetic  power 
upon  the  world,  incomparably  greater  than  was 
exercised  by  the  most  majestic  female  patriots  of 
Paganism."     Vol.  ii.,  p.  389. 


MAPJOLATRY.  167 

Archbishop  Whately,  in  tracing  the  errors  of 
Romanism  to  some  principles  in  human  nature, 
might  readily  have  discerned  in  this  worship  of 
the  Virgin  something  which  made  it  fondly  wel- 
come to  the  heart.  Where  the  idea  of  God  was 
thrown  into  a  mysterious  and  awful  background, 
and  the  court  of  heaven  was  painted  by  the 
imagination  after  the  fashion  of  an  earthly  court 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  access  to  the  monarch 
was  with  difficulty  obtained,  and  only  abject  fear 
and  trembling  could  be  felt  in  his  presence,  with 
what  j(iy  was  received  the  dogma  of  a  gentle  and 
loving  one  to  go  between  the  suppliant  and  that 
King  of  kings,  —  one  who  had  all  womanly  ten- 
derness and  pit}^,  into  whose  ear  every  sorrow 
and  wish  might  be  poured,  and  whose  influence 
was  all  powerful  in  heaven. 

Her  image  was  set  up  everywhere,  and  in  Cath- 
olic Europe  may  still  be  seen,  not  only  in  lofty, 
cathedrals,  and  venerated  parish  churches,  and 
sacred  retreats  for  the  dead,  but  in  the  corners  of 
the  streets,  in  shrines  by  the  wayside,  in  resting 
places  of  the  mountain  paths,  on  the  inclosures 
of  the  vineyards,  over  the  doors  of  the  houses,  on 
the  walls  of  the  humblest  dwelling,  in  the  shop  of 
the  artisan  ;  and  she  of  the  loving  smile,  with  the 


168  '  THE   BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

infant  Jesus  in  her  arms,  seen  by  every  one,  from 
the  first  memory  of  youth  to  the  last  look  in 
death,  became  a  real  being  whose  existence,  and 
compassion,  and  power  it  was  impossible  to  doubt. 
God  occupied  no  place  in  their  hearts  compared 
with  that  of  Mary.i 

Of  course  all  this  was  founded  on  false  concep- 
tions of  God.  Mariolati-y  could  never  have  ex- 
isted had  men  believed  what  Jesus  had  taught 
of  the  Father,  who  clothes  the  lilies  with  tlieir 
beauty,  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  head,  and  with- 
out whose  notice  not  even  a  sparrow  falls  to  the 
ground.  It  is  the  grand  distinction  of  that  Di- 
vine Teacher  to  present  to  us  in  God  a  being 
whom  the  heart  may  love,  whom  it  may  approach 
in  confidence  and  joy,  and  before  whom  it  may 
pour  out  all  its  cares,  "  for  he  careth  for  us." 
But  when  a  false  religion  has  shrouded  the  throne 
,of  the  Almighty  with  awful  mystery  and  terror, 
the  human  heart  will  make  some  object  to  love, 
for  to  love  is  one  of  the  necessities  of  our  nature. 


1  The  lines  of  Words^yorth  to  the   Virgin  may  here  be  re- 
called :  — 

"  Thy  very  name,  0  Lady,  flings 
0"er  blooming  fields  and  gushing  springs 
A  tender  sense  of  shadowy  fear, 
And  chastening  sympathies." 


MARIOLATRY.  169 

There  has  been  much  speculation  as  to  the 
effect  in  Roman  Catholic  countries  of  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Virgin  ;  and  it  has  often  been  said 
that  it  has  elevated  the  position  of  woman.  We 
think  that  such  an  opinion  could  not  have  been 
founded  on  an3^thing  the  traveler  now  sees  in  those 
countries.  The  position  of  woman  in  Protestant 
lands  is  beyond  comparison  higher.  But  after  all 
this  is  not  decisive.  No  one  can  tell  how  much 
lower  woman  might  have  fallen  had  she  not  been 
shielded  by  some  associations  of  infinite  purity 
and  holiness  with  her  to  whom  so  many  prayers 
have  been  addressed ;  and  this  refuge  in  all  times 
of  sorrow  and  peril  to  one  who  was  believed  to 
be  full  of  gentleness  and  love,  how  could  it  wholly 
fail  to  do  much  to  soften  rugged  natures,  and  to 
teach  sweet  lessons  of  pity  and  forgiveness  ? 

Probably  the  homage  given  to  the  Virgin  IMary 
would  have  had  a  more  humanizing  influence,  and 
would  have  done  more  to  elevate  her  sex,  had  not 
superstition  placed  her  on  a  pinnacle  so  far  above 
all  other  women.  Her  birth  was  regarded  as 
miraculous,  for  the  supposed  law  of  transmitted 
sin  was  suspended  in  the  case  of  her  who  was  the 
Queen  of  Heaven,  and  the  Mother  of  God ;  and 
this   accumulation    around    her    of    supernatural 


170  THE    BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

attributes,  how  did  it  make  all  others  of  her 
sex  appear  in  comparison  ?  Her  beauty,  purity, 
gentleness,  and  love  were  something  more  than 
human,  and  therefore  were  no  example  and  meas- 
ure for  others,  who  perhaps  were  sometimes  even 
scorned  by  the  contrast.  Who  can  doubt  that 
both  Jesus  and  his  mother  will  have  a  pro- 
founder  influence  over  human  hearts,  the  closer 
they  are  brought  to  our  humanity  ? 

To  show  what  influence  she  has  had  in  past 
ages  the  old  legends  of  the  church  have  a  special 
interest.  The  "•  Lives  of  the  Saints  "  are  full  of 
stories,  many  of  them  wild  and  absurd,  but  some 
of  them  singularly  beautiful  and  suggestive  of 
the  intercessions  and  helps  of  the  Virgin ;  and  we 
quite  agree  with  what  a  late  writer  says,  who  ex- 
presses himself  as  follows  :  — 

"  There  is,  if  I  mistake  not,  no  department  of 
literature  the  importance  of  which  is  more  inad- 
equately realized  than  the  "  Lives  of  the  Saints." 
Even  when  they  have  no  direct  historical  value, 
they  have  a  moral  value  of  the  very  highest  or- 
der. They  may  not  tell  us  with  accuracy  what 
men  did  at  particular  epochs,  but  the}^  display 
with  the  utmost  vividness  what  men  thought  and 
felt,  their  measure  of  probability,  and  tlieir  ideal 


MARIOLATRY.  171 

of  excellence.  Decrees  of  councils,  elaborate 
treatises  of  theologians,  creeds,  liturgies,  and  can- 
ons, are  only  the  husks  of  religious  history.  They 
reveal  what  was  professed  and  argued  before  the 
world,  but  not  that  which  was  realized  in  the 
imagination  and  enshrined  in  the  heart.  The 
history  of  art,  which  in  its  ruder  day  reflected 
with  delicate  fidelitj^  the  fleeting  images  of  an  an- 
thropomorphic age,  is  in  this  respect  invaluable ; 
but  still  more  important  is  that  vast  Christian 
mythology  which  grew  up  spontaneously  fi-om 
the  intellectual  condition  of  the  time,  included 
all  its  dearest  hopes,  wishes,  ideals,  and  imagin- 
ings, and  constituted  during  many  centuries  the 
popular  literature  of  Christendom."  ^ 

No  English  writer,  we  believe,  has  looked  into 
this  mythology  so  much  as  INIrs.  Jameson,  and 
her  delightful  works  on  the  old  church  legends 
are  an  invaluable  companion  to  the  visitor  of  the 
galleries  of  Europe.  Alban  Butler's  "  Lives  of 
the  Saints "  is  another  storehouse  ;  but  a  work 
in  Italian,  the  "  Golden  Legend,"  by  Giacobo 
Voragine,  is  the  most  fam.ous  collection,  — a  fine 
copy  of  which,  now  rarely  obtained,  fortunately 
rewarded  our  search  in  an  old  bookstore  in  Flor- 

1  Lecky's  Flistorj/  of  Morals,  vol.  ii.,  p.  119. 


172  THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

ence.  Later  than  this  a  French  publication,  en- 
titled "Apparitions  et  Revelations  de  la  Tres- 
Sainte  Vierge,"  by  Paul  Sausseret,  gives  us  in 
two  volumes  one  hundred  and  forty  legends  of 
the  Virgin. 

In  casting  one's  eye  over  this  vast  mass  of  me- 
diaeval literature,  the  first  thing  that  one  observes 
is  that  these  legends  cover  the  entire  course  of  the 
Virgin's  history,  —  her  Birth,  her  Presentation 
in  the  Temple,  her  Espousal,  her  Marriage,  her 
Conception,  the  Birth  of  her  Son,  the  Visit  of  the 
Magi,  the  Purification,  the  Flight  into  Egypt,  the 
Repose  in  Egypt,  the  Seeking  of  Jesus  amid  the 
Doctors  of  the  Temple,  the  Marriage  at  Cana  of 
Galilee,  Mary  at  the  Crucifixion,  the  Stabat  Ma- 
ter,i  Mary  at  the  Descent  from  the  Cross,  Mary  at 
the  Entombment,  Mary  at  the  Resurrection,  her 
Death,  her  Ascension,  her  Assumption,  her  En- 
thronement, and  her  Coronation.  From  many  of 
these  Christian  art  has  drawn  the  subjects  of  its 
most  renowned  works. 

The  wonderful   variety  and  expressiveness   of 

the  titles  given  to  lier  is  also  observable.     She  is 

1  So  called  from  tlie  first  line  of  an  old  Latin  hymn  :  — 
"  Stabat  Mater  Dolorosa 
Juxta  crucem  lachrymosa 
Dum  pendebat  filius." 


MARIOLATRY.  173 

the  Holy  Virgin,  the  Blessed  Virgin,  the  Immac- 
ulate Virgin,  Our  Lady  of  Peace,  Our  Lady  of 
Good  Counsel,  Our  Lady  of  Sorrow,  Our  Lady  of 
Succor,  Our  Lady  of  Good  Heart,  Our  Lady  of 
Mercy,  Our  Lady  of  Grace,  Our  Lady  of  Hope, 
Our  Lady  of  Victoi'y,  Our  Lady  of  Salvation,  Our 
Lady  of  the  Cradle,  Our  Lady  of  the  Girdle,  Our 
Guardian  Lady,  Our  Lady  of  Mount  Carmel,  Our 
Lady  of  Bethlehem,  The  Queen  of  Heaven,  The 
Divine  Mother,  The  Mother  of  Grief,  Our  Celes- 
tial Empress,  and  she  is  addressed  by  other  titles 
more  than  we  can  recapitulate.  In  every  con- 
siderable place  throughout  the  Roman  Catholic 
world,  churches  have  been  consecrated  to  her, 
and  one  particidar  hour  every  day,  the  most 
thoughtful  and  tender  hour  of  all,  has  been  set 
apart  for  the  "  Ave  Maria." 

It  may  be  thought  that  any  citation  of  these 
legends  is  quite  uns'uited  to  the  purpose  of  this 
book,  which  aims  to  set  forth  historical  facts  and 
logical  arguments  bearing  on  the  general  thesis 
in  view,  while  these  church  stories  take  us  into 
the  region  of  sentiment  and  poetry. 

But  they  show  us  the  state  of  feeling  in  which 
originated  the  popular  belief  about  Christ's 
mother  and  his  birth.     Even  at  the  present  day 


174  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

dogmas  are  more  the  product  of  emotion  than  of 
reason.  How  much  more  was  this  the  case  eight 
and  ten  centuries  ago  !  On  the  points  referred  to, 
we  have  inherited  a  creed  from  a  condition  of 
society  which  has  so  long  since  passed  away  that 
we  perhaps  find  it  difficult  to  reproduce  it  to  our 
imagination ;  and  it  is  only  by  the  aid  of  these 
legends  that  we  can  go  back  to  past  genenitions, 
whose  wild  and  fabulous  creations  still  haunt  the 
domain  of  Christian  thought.  For  this  reason 
the  quotations  we  propose  to  make  seem  germane 
to  our  design,  and  may  not  detract  from  its  inter- 
est. 

In  translating,  then,  from  the  French  and  Ital- 
ian, a  few  of  these  old  legends  for  our  pages,  we 
pass  by  those  that  are  the  best  known  as  being 
the  motif  of  famous  pictures,  and  have  taken  such 
as  may  suggest  the  variety  of  services  which  it 
was  thought  the  Virgin  rendered  to  her  devotees. 
It  will  be  seen  that  it  was  believed  that  she  min- 
istered to  the  humblest  forms  of  human  need. 

HOW  THE   VIRGIN   HONORED  A  SERVANT   IN   THE 
MONASTERY. 

By  the  pious  care  of  St.  Bernard  no  less  than 
eight    hundred    had    been    gathered    under   the 


MARIOLATRY.  175 

shadow  of  the  oaks  and  cloisters  of  Clairvaux,  It 
was  made  a  valley  of  milk  and  honey  ;  and  led 
by  him  in  the  way  of  eternal  life,  they  all  had 
one  heart  to  praise  and  serve  God. 

There  was  with  them  a  menial  brother  by  the 
name  of  Didier,  a  man  of  the  deepest  piety,  who 
made  a  special  devotion  to  the  Sainted  Virgin, 
wdiom  he  loved  with  all  his  heart  during  the 
whole  course  of  his  life.  His  duty  called  him  to 
pass  the  night  of  the  Assumption  in  the  forest, 
guarding  the  sheep  of  the  monastery  :  and  so  he 
could  not  join  in  the  holy  offices  in  honor  of  Our 
Lady.  But  all  night  long  he  ceased  not  to  keep 
his  thoughts  turned  to  heaven,  and  to  salute  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  adding  prayers  to  prayers,  and 
sighs  to  sighs.  No  one  Avon  her  heart  so  much 
as  he. 

St.  Bernard  knew  all  this  by  express  revela- 
tion, and  the  next  day,  when  the  holy  mysteries 
of  the  Assumption  had  been  duly  celebrated,  he 
addressed  the  religious  in  these  words  :  — 

"  I  do  not  doubt,  my  brethren,  that  you  have 
all  offered  to  our  most  holy  Mother  the  homage 
which  is  her  due,  and  that  you  will  have  as  a 
recompense  the  part  which  our  august  and  well 
beloved  Sovereign  will  bestow ;   but  I  must  in- 


176  THE    BIRTH    OF  JESUS. 

form  you  that  one  of  the  least  of  our  brethren, 
who,  in  the  forest  guarding  our  flocks,  passed  all 
the  joj'^ous  night  of  this  grand  solemnity,  has 
rendered  to  the  Queen  of  Heaven  an  homage, 
which  no  one  of  you,  however  great  has  been  his 
devotion,  has  surpassed  in  the  sight  of  God  and 
our  common  Mother.  Behold  what  has  raised 
him  above  us  all !  "  ' 

And  then  he  related  what  had  been  revealed  to 
him.  And  Didier,  at  his  last  hour,  saw  the  Queen 
of  Heaven  come  in  the  midst  of  a  cortege  of  ce- 
lestial spirits.  He  heard  her  call  him  by  name; 
he  saluted  her ;  and  she  responded  with  the  smile 
of  heaven,  and  received  him  to  the  regions  of 
eternal  peace  and  joy. 

HOW   THE   VIRGIN   FREED   A   SLAVE. 

There  was  once  a  Christian  mother  whose  son 
had  been  carried  off  by  Mussulman  pirates,  and 
had  long  worn  the  chains  of  a  bitter  slavery.  She 
had  no  mone}^  to  pay  his  ransom,  and  no  friends 
to  intercede  in  his  -behalf ;  and  in  her  distress 
she  turned  entirely  and  trustingly  to  Our  Lady 
of  Sorrow. 

One  day,  when  her  prayer  had  been  fervent, 
accompanied  by  alms  and  fast,  the  Holy  Virgin 


MARIOLATRY.  177 

appeared  and  said,  "  What  do  you  wish  of  me  ? 
Why  these  tears  and  groans?"  And  the  pious 
woman  replied,  "  Good  Lady,  restore  to  me  the 
child  of  my  love,  now  in  slavery."  And  the 
Blessed  Virgin  said,  "  Dry  up  your  tears ;  you 
shall  see  your  son." 

One  day  soon  after,  when  the  mother  of  the 
captive  was  revolving  these  things  in  her  heart, 
some  one  knocked  at  her  door.  She  opened  it, 
and  what  was  her  surprise  and  joy  when  she 
recognized  her  son.  She  asked  him  how  he  had 
obtained  his  freedom.  And  he  said,  "  One  night 
the  Mother  of  God  came  to  me,  and  took  the 
irons  from  my  feet  and  hands  and  neck,  and 
showed  me  the  way  to  come  to  your  arms."  And 
on  comparing  their  accounts  it  appeared  that  this 
was  on  the  very  night  when  the  Holy  Virgin 
had  promised  all  this  to  the  mother. 

THE   VIRGIN   AND   THE   LEPER. 

In  a  certain  monastery  there  was  a  poor  lay- 
brother,  whom  God  had  sorely  afflicted  with  lep- 
rosy, in  order  to  try  him,  and  that  he  might  lay 
up  by  patience  and  resignation  a  great  sum  of 
merits.  He  was  sequestered  from  all  intercourse 
with  others,  and  kept  in  a  cell  by  himself.    There 

12 


178  THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

succumbing  to  the  might  of  the  hand  that  was 
upon  him,  and  feeling  the  utmost  discourage- 
ment, he  lent  an  ear  to  the  enemy  of  all  souls, 
and  resolved  to  throw  himself  at  night  into  a 
river  hard  by. 

But  he  had  fear  of  the  dogs  that  guarded  the 
place  every  night  as  soon  as  it  was  dark ;  and  so 
he  bethought  himself  to  defer  the  execution  of 
his  plan  till  Christmas  Eve,  when  no  one  slept, 
and  the  dogs  were  not  on  watch.  Meanwhile  his 
disease  had  so  disabled  him  that  he  now  could 
not  walk  a  step,  and  hardly  could  he  sustain  him- 
self on  his  feet.  Then  he  tried  to  drag  himself 
to  the  water,  but  this  he  found  impossible. 

This  poor  brother  had  formerly  been  a  most 
devout  worshiper  of  the  Virgin,  and  in  his  ex- 
tremity she  did  not  forget  him.  One  night  she 
appeared  to  him,  accompanied  by  many  holy  an- 
gels, and  by  John,  a  brother  of  the  monastery. 
She  said,  in  gentle  and  loving  tones,  "  My  son,  do 
not  neglect  the  service  of  God ;  and  be  not  cast 
down  when  he  chastises  you,  for  like  a  Father  he 
corrects  for  their  good  those  whom  he  loves." 
When  the  Holy  Virgin  had  thus  comforted  this 
poor  leper  with  sweet  words  she  departed  with 
her  angel  attendants. 


MARIOLATRY.  179 

Not  long  after,  some  one  came  to  ask  the  leper 
if  he  was  in  want  of  anything,  and  he  asked  to 
see  Brother  John.  To  him  he  began  to  recount 
his  vision ;  but  John  said,  "  I  have  seen  all  of 
which  you  speak ;  not  with  my  bodily  eyes,  but 
with  the  eyes  of  my  soul ;  and  the  Blessed  Virgin 
when  she  left  you  went  to  the  choir  of  monks,  to 
witness  to  these  servants  of  God  her  satisfaction 
in  their  chanting  the  praises  of  the  Most  High." 
Then  the  leper  had  no  doubt  that  he  had  indeed 
been  favored  with  a  celestial  visit  from  the  Di- 
vine Mother,  whose  loving  counsel  he  followed, 
showing  ever  after  heroic  patience  and  resigna- 
tion, and  dying  in  the  most  pious  and  edifying 
manner. 

THE   VIRGIN   AND   THE   ARCHITECT. 

In  the  year  324  the  Emperor  Constantine, 
among  other  temples  which  he  consecrated  to  the 
Virgin,  designed  one  which  should  be  the  most 
costly,  and  most  worthy  of  the  Blessed  Mother  of 
Jesus.  So  he  had  enormous  columns  cut  in  the 
quarries,  and  transported  to  the  chosen  place. 
But  what  was  his  surprise  to  find  that  through 
their  vast  size  and  length  they  could  not  be  set 
on  end.     In  vain  for  a  long  time  they  tried  to 


180  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

raise  them  ;  all  their  plans  failed,  and  their  labor 
was  lost. 

The  architect,  who  was  deeply  grieved,  was 
one  night  in  bed  revolving  this  difficulty.  All  at 
once  the  Holy  Virgin  appeared  to  him  and  said, 
"  Cease  to  be  sad.  I  will  show  you  what  to  do." 
And  so  she  briefly  explained  what  machines  and 
ropes  were  to  be  •  used,  and  then  added,  "  Take 
with  you  three  little  children.  You  will  need  no 
more;  I  will  give  you  help." 

When  the  architect  awoke,  he  recalled  his 
dream,  and  prepared  his  towers,  his  cables,  his 
pulleys,  just  as  she  had  prescribed;  and  calling 
three  children  from  a  neighboring  school  he  set 
to  work.  Wonderfully  the  columns  arose  and 
took  their  appointed  place,  and  crowds  of  people 
came  to  see  how  one  man  with  tln-ee  little  chil- 
dren had  done  what  a  thousand  arms  had  in  vain 
attempted. 

HOW     THE     VIRGIN     SELECTED    A    SITE     FOR     A 
CHURCH. 

In  the  year  363  the  Divine  Mother  chose  to 
give  in  Rome  a  mark  of  her  gracious  favor  and 
to  confirm  her  worship  by  a  prodigy.  There  was 
then   in    Rome  a  powerful  and  rich    Patrician, 


MARIOLATRY.  181 

whose  wife  had  brought  him  as  large  an  estate  as 
he  possessed  himself.  They  were  equal  in  rank, 
in  the  gifts  of  nature,  and  the  graces  of  the  heart, 
but  one  joy  was  wanting.  They  were  childless  ; 
and  afflicted  that  they  had  no  heir  to  their  vast 
fortune,  they  resolved  to  devote  it  all  to  the  Ce- 
lestial Mother. 

One  night  in  the  month  of  August,  when  the 
heats  are  the  greatest  in  Rome,  there  fell  on  the 
Esquiline  Hill  a  quantity  of  snow,  which  in  the 
morning  was  seen  to  cover  the  ground.  That 
same  night  this  Patrician,  whose  name  was  John, 
and  his  wife  also,  had  a  dream  in  which  the 
Holy  Virgin  appeared  to  both  of  them,  telling 
them  to  construct  a  temple  to  her  honor  on  the 
spot  which  she  would  mark  with  snow. 

Early  then  the  next  morning  John  went  and 
recounted  the  wonderful  vision  to  the  Pope,  Li- 
bei"ius,  who  said  that  he  also  had  had  the  same 
revelation.  The  Pontiff  then  ordered  a  proces- 
sion, and  clergy  and  people  went  with  the  chant 
of  hymns  and  with  lighted  torches  to  the  Esqui- 
line Hill.  Some  say  the  snow  had  fallen  in  lines 
to  mark  the  dimensions  of  the  church.  There  a 
temple  was  built  at  the  expense  of  the  Patrician 
John  and  his  virtuous  wife.     At  first  the  church 


182  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

was  known  by  tlie  name  of  Nostra  Donna  Delle 
Neve,  Our  Lady  of  the  Snow  ;  but  afterwards  it 
received  the  name  it  bears  to  this  day  of  Santa 
Maria  Maggiore,  and  is  now  one  of  the  largest 
basilicas  of  Ronie.^ 

HOW    THE    VIRGIN   PLANNED   A   BATTLE. 

For  sixty  years  Italy  had  been  the  prey  of  the 
Goths,  and  Theodoric  and  Totila,  kings  of  those 
barbarians,  had  brought  that  beautiful  country 
to  a  deplorable  state.  At  length  the  piety  and 
good  works  of  the  Emperor  Justinian  mounted  to 
the  throne  of  God;  and  the  Queen  of  Heaven, 
to  whom  the  emperor  was  specially  devoted,  had 
pleaded  with  God  and  had  obtained  favor. 

There  was  at  that  time  in  the  army  of  the  em- 
peror a  general  of  small  stature  and  feeble  consti- 
tution, but  of  great  valor  and  of  signal  piety 
towards  the  Blessed  Mother.  One  night  she  ap- 
peared to  him  and  traced  the  plan  of  a  campaign, 

^  "  The  whole  story  of  the  vision,  the  suow-storm,  and  the 
founding  of  tliis  church,  is  represented  in  tlie  mosaics  of  the 
tliirteenth  century  still  ou  its  facade;  and  the  Pope  tracing  the 
foundations  in  the  snow  is  the  subject  elsewhere  represented  in  a 
gilt  and  silver  relief  over  the  altar  of  the  magnificent  Borghese 
chapel  in  the  same  basilica."  Hemau's  History  of  Ancient  Sacred 
Art. 


MARIOLATRY.  183 

and  taught  him  what  marches  to  make,  what 
ambushes  to  escape,  and  what  positions  to  fortify- 
In  everything  he  followed  her  counsels ;  and 
when  the  army  of  Totila  was  cut  to  pieces,  in 
563,  on  the  plains  of  Tuscany,  the  celestial  Queen 
herself  was  seen,  as  many  testified  who  were 
there,  directing  the  opei'ations  that  led  to  that 
renowned  victory. 

THE   VIRGIN   AND    THE   MIRACULOUS    CANDLE. 

In  tlie  year  1095  the  village  of  Arras  was  smit- 
ten with  the  plague,  which  had  commenced  in 
1089  in  Lorraine,  and  had  so  much  prevailed 
that  that  year  Avas  called  the  jyest  year.  It  en- 
dured for  a  long  time,  and  depopulated  parts  of 
France  and  covered  it  with  grief. 

In  this  extremity  the  inhabitants  of  Arras  had 
recourse  to  the  supreme  and  all  powerful  consola- 
trice  of  human  sorrow.  Processions  Avere  made, 
and  prayers  the  most  fervent  mounted  on  the 
two  wmgs  of  faith  and  hoj^e  to  the  throne  of  the 
Virgin. 

She  was  not  deaf  to  their  supplications.  One 
day  as  the  bishop,  Lambert,  entered  the  church 
at  the  head  of  a  great  procession,  all  the  peojDle 
saw  the  Virgin  descend  from  the  towers,  bearing 


184  THE  BIRTH   OF  JESUS. 

a  miraculous  candle,  which  she  placed  in  the 
hands  of  two  men,  who  were  mortal  enemies,  and 
whom  she  thus  wished  to  reconcile  with  each 
other.  They  carried  it  to  the  bishop,  who  re- 
ceived it  with  tears  of  joy.  When  it  was  lighted, 
it  burned  one  hundred  years  without  consuming 
or  being  extinguished ;  and  water  into  which 
drops  fi'om  this  candle  had  fallen  was  a  perfect 
cure  of  the  pest. 

In  memory  of  this  a  fete  was  established,  and 
a  rich  chapel  for  the  miraculous  candle  was  built. 
Pope  Sixtus  IV.  ordained  that  an  exact  narrative 
of  the  miracle  here  w^'ought  should  be  pre- 
pared ;  and  afterwards  Pojae  Clement  VIII.,  by 
a  bull  in  1597,  accorded  indulgences  to  those  who 
should  visit  this  chapel  in  Arras. 

THE   VIRGIN    AND    THE    CISTERCIANS. 

In  the  year  1113  a  monk  of  the  religious  order 
of  Gistei"cians,  who  had  a  special  devotion  to  the 
Holy  Mother,  was  favored  wath  an  ecstasy  in 
which  the  heavens  were  ojiened  to  him,  and  he 
saw  the  choirs  of  angels,  and  the  patriarchs,  and 
the  prophets,  and  the  apostles,  and  the  martyrs, 
and  confessoi-s,  and  various  orders  of  monks,  all 
distinguished  by  their  proper  emblems.  But, 
alas,  there  was  not  one  of  his  own  order  there. 


MARIOLATRY.  185 

Witli  sorrow  lie  turned  to  tlie  Divine  Empress 
of  Heaven  and  said,  "  Why,  Holy  Virgin,  do  I 
see  none  of  my  order  here  ?  "  And  the  august 
Queen  of  Heaven  replied,  "  Because  the  Cister- 
cians to  me  are  so  dear,  I  do  not  treat  them  as 
others ;  but  like  to  a  hen  who  gathers  her  brood 
under  her  wings,  I  gather  the  elect  whom  your 
order  hath  given  to  the  realm  of  my  Son."  With 
these  words  she  opened  the  ample  folds  of  her 
mantle,  and  there  was  an  innumerable  company 
of  saints  that  had  belonged  to  this  order. 

The  monk  was  overwhelmed  with  joy.  He 
gave  to  the  Divine  Protectress  the  most  fervent 
thanks ;  and  when  his  ecstasy  ceased,  he  related 
the  wonderful  vision  to  his  Superior. 

HOW    THE   VIRGIN    TREATED   THE    INCREDULITY 
OF    THOMAS. 

When  the  Blessed  Mother  ascended  to  heaven 
in  the  sight  of  the  apostles,  it  so  happened  that 
Thomas  was  not  present  with  the  rest  of  the 
Twelve,  but  after  three  days  he  returned  to  them. 
When  they  related  to  him  the  wonderful  story  of 
her  translation,  he  doubted  and  said  he  would  not 
believe  unless  he  should  find  her  tomb  empty. 
Upon  this  they  showed  him  the  tomb  which  she 


186  THE   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

had  left  ;  and  the  Holy  Vii'gin,  taking  pity  upon 
him,  threw  down  from  heaven  her  girdle  that  this 
might  remove  all  doubt  from  his  mind. 

Thus  some  perhaps  natural  impediment  to  a 
believing  spirit,  so  often  visited  with  stern  re- 
buke, moved  the  blessed  Mother  to  tender  com- 
passion, and  gently  won  a  heart  to  faith  which 
might  otherwise  have  been  driven  to  unbelief. 
In  the  Florentine  Gallery  is  a  charming  picture 
by  Granacci,  representing  the  Virgin  seated  on 
the  clouds,  and  surrounded  by  a  choir  of  angels, 
while  beneath  her  is  the  empty  tomb.  Thomas 
is  kneeling  beside  it,  and  the  Virgin  drops  her 
girdle  down  into  his  hand,  which  he  receives  with 
grateful  joy  and  reverence. 

HOW  THE   VIRGHSr    MARRIED   ST.    CATHARINE  TO 
HER    SON. 

Catharine's  father  was  a  brother  of  Constan- 
tine  the  Great.  He  died  when  she  was  but  four- 
teen years  of  age,  and  left  her  Avith  his  kingdom, 
heiress  of  immense  wealth.  From  her  infancy 
she  had  been  the  wonder  of  all,  for  her  grace  of 
person  and  gifts  of  mind  ;  and  when  she  became 
queen  she  despised  tlie  cares  of  royal  splendor, 
and  gave  herself  to  study. 


MARIOLATRY.  187 

The  nobles  of  the  country  begged  that  she 
would  be  pleased  to  take  a  husband  who  should 
assist  her  in  the  government  of  the  kingdom,  and 
lead  forth  their  armies  to  war.  "  And  what 
manner  of  man  is  this  that  I  must  marry  ?  "  she 
asked.  And  they  said  to  her :  "  You  are  our 
most  sovereign  lady  and  queen,  and  it  is  well 
known  to  all  that  you  possess  four  most  notable 
gifts  :  the  first  is,  you  have  the  most  noble  blood 
in  the  whole  world  ;  the  second  is,  that  you  are 
the  greatest  heiress  whom  we  know ;  the  third 
is,  that  in  science  and  wisdom  you  surpass  all 
others ;  and  the  fourth  is,  that  in  beauty  none 
can  be  compared  with  you.  Wherefore  we  be- 
seech you  that  these  good  gifts,  with  which  the 
great  God  hath  endowed  you  beyond  all  creat- 
ures, may  move  you  to  take  a  lord  to  your  hus- 
band who  shall  be  not  unworthy  of  your  choice." 

And  then  the  queen  said :  "  If  God  hath 
wrought  so  great  virtues  in  us,  we  are  bound  to 
love  him  and  to  please  him  ;  and  he  that  shall 
be  my  husband,  and  the  lord  of  my  heart,  must 
have  also  notable  gifts  :  he  must  be  of  so  noble 
blood  that  all  men  shall  worship  him,  and  so 
great  that  I  shall  never  think  that  I  have  made 
him  king,  and  so  rich  that  he  shall  surpass  all 


188  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

others  in  wealth,  and  so  full  of  beauty  that  the 
angels  of  God  shall  desire  to  behold  him,  and  so 
benign  that  he  can  gladly  forgive  all  offenses 
done  unto  liim.  If  you  can  find  me  such  an  one 
I  will  take  him  for  my  husband  and  the  lord  of 
my  heart." 

Then  all  her  lords  and  friends  looked  upon 
each  other  and  said,  "Such  an  one  as  she  hath 
described  there  never  was  and  never  shall  be." 

Now  the  Virgin  Mary  appeared  out  of  heaven 
and  sent  a  message  by  a  holy  hei-mit  to  the  young 
Queen  Catharine,  to  tell  her  that  the  husband  she 
desired  was  the  Virgin's  Son,  who  was  the  King 
of  glory,  and  Lord  of  all  power  and  might.  And 
when  Catharine  slept,  the  Blessed  Virgin  ap- 
peared to  her  in  a  dream,  accompanied  by  her 
Divine  Son,  and  with  them  a  noble  company  of 
saints  and  angels.  And  the  Lord  smiled  upon 
her  and  held  out  his  hand,  and  plighted  his  troth 
to  her,  and  put  a  ring  on  her  finger,  and  when 
she  awoke  the  ring  was  there,  and  thenceforth 
she  regarded  herself  as  the  betrothed  of  Christ. 

We  must  quote  no  more  of  these  legends, 
though  hundreds  of  them  might  be  given.  There 
was  no  form  of  sorrow,  or  trouble,  or  need,  which 


MARIOLATRY.  189 

the  Divine  Mother  could  not  help.  No  doubt 
some  of  these  tales  were  as  much  fictions  as,  in 
Disraeli's  story,  was  the  reported  appearance  of 
the  Virgin  to  save  the  life  of  Lothair ;  ^  yet  many 

1  "  That  some  of  the  Christian  legends  were  deliberate  forger- 
ies can  scarcely  be  questioned.  The  principle  of  pious  fraud  ap- 
peared to  justify  this  mode  of  working  on  the  popular  mind.  It 
was  admitted  and  avowed-  To  deceive  into  Christianity  was  so 
valuable  a  service  as  to  hallow  deceit  itself.  But  the  largest  por- 
tion was  probably  the  natural  birth  of  that  imaginative  excitement 
which  quickens  its  day-dreams  and  nightly  visions  into  reality." 
Milman. 

"  There  are  other  avenues,  more  trodden  than  the  narrow  way 
of  reason,  by  which  opinions  enter  the  mind.  What  impresses  the 
imagination,  affects  the  feelings,  and  is  blended  with  habitual 
association,  is  received  by  the  generality  as  true.  Fables  however 
absurd,  conceptions  however  irrational,  even  unmeaning  forms  of 
words,  which  have  been  early  presented  to  the  mind,  and  with 
which  it  has  been  long  conversant,  make  as  vivid  an  impression 
upon  it  as  realities,  and  assume  their  character.  No  opinions  in- 
here more  strongly  than  those  about  which  the  reason  is  not  ex- 
ercised ;  for  they  are  unassailable  by  argument.  Nor  shall  we 
find  it  hard  to  conceive,  nor  regard  it  as  a  very  extraordinary 
fact,  that  the  fables  respecting  the  mother  of  our  Lord  and  our 
Lord  himself  have  been  credited,  as  well  as  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation.  Undoubtedly,  the  world  has  grown  wiser ;  or 
rather  a  small  portion  of  the  world  has  grown  wiser,  and  we  may 
hope  the  light  will  become  less  troubled,  steadier,  and  brighter, 
and  spread  itself  more  widely."  Norton's  Genuineness  of  the  Gos- 
pels, vol.  iii.,  p.  274. 


190  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

of  them  may  have  been  mostly  founded  on  some 
fact,  and  grateful  and  devout  imaginations  gave 
them  the  form  in  which  they  have  come  down  to 
lis.  They  are  the  language  of  wonder,  of  love 
and  joy,  of  unreasoning  and  highly  wrought  exal- 
tation of  feeling ;  and  those  who  told  these  stories 
and  those  who  heard  them  no  more  thought  of 
asking  if  they  were  true,  than  we  think  of  ask- 
ing for  the  chemical  properties  of  the  peach  or 
the  grape  whose  flavor  we  enjoy.  These  legends 
belonged  to  an  age  which  will  never  return,  but 
to  which  they  were  as  much  fitted  as  baby-talk  is 
fitted  to  infancy,  and  as  our  stammering  intellect- 
ualism  is  fitted  to  the  age  in  which  we  live  ;  and. 
of  two  things  we  hardly  know  which  is  the  most 
absurd,  to  criticise  them  according  to  our  modern 
ideas,  or  to  insist  that  we  shall  now  believe  them 
just  as  they  were  believed  a  few  centuries  ago. 

A  few  centuries  ago !  How  strange  it  seems 
that  we  stand  so  near  the  time  when  they  were 
the  intellectual  and  spiritual  nourishment  of  our 
ancestors  !  The  Reformation  has  banished  them 
from  our  sympathies  and  affections  as  much,  as 
Mrs.  Jameson  very  justly  says,  "as  if  they  were 
antecedent  to  tlie  fall  of  Babylon,  or  related  to 
the  religion  of  Zoroaster."     But  the  purpose  for 


MARIOLATRY.  191 

which  we  have  quoted  them  will  not  be  over- 
looked. It  has  been  to  show  how  much  they 
served  to  fix  deeply  in  the  convictions  and  hearts 
of  the  people  these  misinterpretations  which  made 
Mary  the  Mother  of  God. 

The  subject  of  the  "  Immaculate  Conception  " 
connects  itself  here  with  our  general  topic.  It  is 
easy  to  see  the  sort  of  reasoning  which  led  to 
that  dogma.  After  the  seventh  century  it  was 
said,  if  Mary  be  the  Mother  of  God,  she  must 
have  been  a  j^ure  shrine  for  his  dwelling;  and 
therefore  must  have  been  free  both  from  original 
and  acquired  sinfulness.  "It  was  argued,"  as 
Mrs.  Jameson  says,  "  that  God  never  suffered  any 
temple  of  his  to  be  profaned  :  he  had  even  pro- 
mulgated severe  ordinances  to  preserve  his  sanct- 
uary inviolate.  How  much  more  to  him  was 
that  temple,  that  tabernacle  built  by  no  human 
hands,  in  which  he  had  condescended  to  dwell ! 
Nothing  was  impossible  to  God ;  it  lay  therefore 
in  his  power  to  cause  his  Mother  to  come  abso- 
lutely pure  and  immaculate  into  the  world.  Be- 
ing in  his  power,  could  any  earnest  worshiper  of 
the  Virgin  for  a  moment  siippose  that  for  one  so 
favored  it  would  not  be  done."  Did  not  the  Song 
of  Solomon  say,  in  a  text  which  Romish  theolo- 


192  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

gians  applied  to  the  Virgin,  "  Thou  art  all  fair, 
my  love  ;  there  is  no  spot  in  thee  "  ?  Canticles 
iv.  7. 

Yet  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  said,  "  If  Mary  was 
conceived  without  sin,  then  she  does  not  need  the 
redemption  of  Christ."  And  St.  Bonaventura 
said,  "  We  ought  to  beware  lest  by  the  honor 
we  ascribe  to  the  Mother,  we  derogate  from  the 
glory  of  the  Son,  and  to  remember  that  the  Crea- 
tor stands  higher  than  an}^  creature.  We  could 
by  no  means  affirm,  without  impiety,  that  the 
Holy  Virgin  had  no  need  of  redemption." 

But  in  time  this  difficulty  was  adroitly  avoided. 
The  hypothesis  was  framed  that  Jesus  freed  his 
mother  from  sin  beforehand,  so  that  she  no  longer 
stood  in  need  of  the  general  redemption. 

For  several  centuries,  however,  there  was  a 
sharp  discussion  on  this  point,  and  the  Francis- 
cans and  Dominicans  were  divided  in  opinion. 
x\t  length  Sixtus  IV.,  who  had  been  a  Francis- 
can, issued  a  papal  decree  in  favor  of  the  dogma. 
A  foi-m  of  service  was  composed,  in  1496,  for  the 
festival  of  the  Conception.  But  this  was  not  for- 
mally instituted  until  1617,  when  Paul  V.  issued 
a  bull  forbidding  any  one  to  teach  and  preach 
against  the  Immaculate  Conception.     This  was 


MARIOLATRY.  193 

received  in  Spain  particularly,  where  the  Fran- 
ciscans were  held  in  great  esteem,  and  where  no 
less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  books  had  been 
written  on  the  subject,  in  a  frenzy  of  religious 
joy ;  and  tournaments,  bull-fights,  and  banquets 
attested  the  triumph  of  the  votaries  of  the  Virgin. 
The  exact  definition  of  this  dogma  as  an  article 
of  faith  was  not  authoritatively  given  until  1854, 
when  Pio  Nono  assembled  three  hundred  prelates 
at  Rome,  and  decreed  with  great  pomp  in  St.  Pe- 
ter's, "  That  the  most  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  in  the 
first  instant  of  her  conception,  was  preserved  free 
from  all  stain  of  original  sin  by  the  singular  grace 
and  privilege  of  Almighty  God,  and  through  the 
merits  of  Jesus  Christ."  A  tasteless  monument 
in  memory  of  this  event  was  erected  in  1857,  in 
the  Piazza  di  Spagna  at  Rome,  the  monument  we 
have  before  referred  to,  and  large  marble  tablets, 
recording  the  names  of  those  who  assisted  at  this 
decree,  have  been  ostentatiously  placed  in  the 
chancel  of  St.  Peter's. 

13 


CHAPTER  XL 

CONCLUSION. 

rilHE  point  we  have  been  discussing  in  this 
-*-  volume  does  not  relate  to  an  abstract  sub- 
ject of  no  practical  importance.  It  intimately 
concerns  our  mode  of  conceiving  of  the  Master  of 
Christians,  and  our  ability  to  understand  and 
love  him.  The  prevailing  views  push  him  aside 
into  a  region  of  mystery  and  shadows,  and  make 
him  a  mythical  demi-god.  They  take  away  our 
revered  Elder  Brother,  "  and  we  know  not  where 
they  have  laid  him."  It  seems  as  if  in  sorrowful 
tones  we  hear  him  say,  "  Have  I  been  so  long  time 
with  you  and  yet  hast  thou  not  known  me  ?  " 

On  the  other  hand,  if  we  think  of  him  as  born 
of  human  parents,  tempted  in  all  respects  as  we 
are,  receiving,  as  his  intellectual  and  spiritual 
nature  unfolded,  a  supply  of  God's  illuminating 
grace  which  has  distinguished  him  from  every 
other  being  on  earth,  we  have  a  view  not  only  in 
harmony  with  the  Scriptures,  but  intelligible  to 


CONCLUSION.  195 

our  understanding,  and  welcome  to  our  heart. 
This  makes  Jesus,  what  he  so  often  called  him- 
self, the  Son  of  Man,  but  no  less  the  Son  of  God. 
In  their  anxiety  to  mark  something  super- 
human in  Jesus,  theologians,  as  it  seems  to  us, 
have  applied  to  his  body  expressions  which  are 
true  only  of  his  soul.  Thus  Neander  says  on  the 
subject  of  the  miraculous  conception :  "  If  we  con- 
ceive the  manifestation  of  Christ  to  have  been  a 
supernatural  communication  of  the  Divine  nature 
for  the  moral  renewal  of  man,  this  conception 
itself,  apart  from  any  historical  accounts,  would 
lead  us  to  form  some  notion  of  the  beginning  of 
his  humble  life  that  would  harmonize  with  it. 
He  entered  into  history  not  as  a  part  of  its  off- 
spring but  as  a  higher  element.  Whatever  has 
its  origin  in  the  natural  course  of  humanity  must 
bear  the  stamp  of  humanity,  and  share  in  the 
sinfulness  that  stains  it.  It  was  impossible  that 
the  second  Adam,  the  Divine  progenitor  of  a  new 
and  heavenly  race,  could  derive  his  origin  from 
the  first  Adam,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature. 
And  so  our  own  idea  of  Christ  compels  us  to  ad- 
mit that  two  factors,  the  one  natural,  and  the 
other  supernatural,  were  coefficient  in  his  en- 
trance into  human  life  ;  and  this  too  although  we 


196  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

maybe  unable  a  priori  to  state  how  that  entrance 
was  accomplished."  ^ 

But  if  in  order  to  have  a  sinless  being  it  be 
necessary  that  his  body  should  be  removed  from 
the  idea  of  earthly  parentage,  the  argument  re- 
quires that  the  mother  should  have  no  share  in 
its  production. 

We  admit  that  Jesus  was  above  "  the  ordinary- 
course  of  humanity,"  was  a  "  communication  of 
the  Divine  nature  for  the  moral  renewal  of  man  ;  " 
but  what  has  this  to  do  with  the  origin  of  his 
hodi/  f  The  Divine  nature  entered  into  history 
as  a  higher  element  through  Christ's  soul;  and  so 
we  recognize  the  two  factors,  the  human  organi- 
zation and  the  divine  illumination ;  but  no  proof 
is  offered  to  show  that  the  latter  cannot  have  con- 
nection with  the  former;  and  who  are  we  who 
talk  about  the  "  impossibility  "  of  this?  Such  a 
connection  is  confessed  if  the  mother  had  any 
share  in  the  formation  of  the  body  of  Jesus. 

Olshausen  follows  in  the  same  strain.  Argu- 
ing for  the  miraculous  birth  he  says  :  "If  we  rec- 
ognize in  Chi'ist  an  actual  incarnation  of  the 
Word  of  God,  then  the  narration  of  his  super- 
natural generation,  so  far  from  astonishing  us, 
1  Life  of  Christ. 


CONCLUSION.  197 

seems  for  the  Saviour  specially  natural  and  befit- 
ting. The  very  idea  of  a  Saviour  requires  that  in 
him  there  should  be  manifested  something  higher, 
something  heavenly,  that  cannot  be  derived  from 
what  exists  in  human  nature." 

Yes,  we  see  in  Jesus  "  something  higher,  some- 
thing heavenly,"  and  above  ordinary  human  nat- 
ure. But  all  this  belonged  to  his  soul.  What 
kind  of  a  body  shall  we  attribute  to  Jesus  if  not 
a  human  body  ? 

This  inherited  corruption  of  man's  nature  to 
which  both  Neander  and  Olshausen  refer,  and 
on  which  countless  other  writei's  so  much  insist  — 
the  dogma  whicih  has  been  age  after  age  handed 
down  in  the  Romish  and  Evangelical  churches  — 
who  can  refrain  from  asking,  What  is  it?  What 
does  it  amount  to  ?  Is  it  a  deeply  fixed  stain, 
ineffaceable  except  by  miracle  ?  Have  these 
churches  really  believed  that  it  can  be  cut  off 
only  by  supernatural  means  ? 

Every  reader  knows  that  these  churches  have 
not  believed  this.  They  have  held  that  the  trans- 
mitted stain,  whatever  it  was,  could  be  removed 
in  the  easiest  mode  in  tlie  world.  Baptismal  re- 
generation, as  they  teach,  puts  it  all  away.  The 
corruption  of  Adam,  original  sin,  is  abolished  by 


198  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

the  water  of  baptism.  So  that  now  a  priest  can 
any  day  do  what  God  could  not  do  except  by  a 
stupendous  departure  from  the  laws  of  Nature. 

In  a  different  school  of  thought  from  the  above- 
named  writers,  we  find  Professor  Norton .  arguing 
for  the  miraculous  conception  in  the  following 
manner:  "Nothing  could  have  served  more  ef- 
fectually to  relieve  Jesus  from  tliat  interposition 
and  embarrassment  in  the  performance  of  his 
high  mission,  to  which  he  would  have  been  ex- 
posed on  the  part  of  his  parents  if  born  in  the 
common  course  of  nature.  It  took  him  from  their 
control,  and  made  them  feel  that  in  regard  to  him 
they  were  not  to  interfere  with  the  purposes  of 
God." 

Perhaps  the  reader  will  think,  as  we  do,  that 
this  is  finding  reasons  for  a  previous  conclusion. 
It  often  happens  in  such  cases  that  the  reasons 
do  not  tally  with  the  facts.  There  is  no  evidence 
to  show  tliat  Jesus  was  in  the  least  taken  from 
the  control  of  his  parents  ;  or  that  anything  oc- 
curred in  regard  to  his  birth  to  impress  his  family 
circle  with  feelings  of  awe.  On  the  other  hand 
we  are  told  that  "  his  brethren  did  not  believe  in 
him,"  John  vii.  5 ;  and  even  thought  him  mad, 
Mark  iii.  21. 


CONCLUSION.  199 

In  view  of  some  historical  notices,  in  a  former 
chapter,  of  sacerdotal  celibacy,  the  remark  of 
Milman,  defending  the  miraculous  conception, 
"  that  it  has  consecrated  sexual  purity,"  seems 
amazing.  In  order  to  remove  all  thoughts  of 
Christ's  birth  from  the  circle  of  nature,  ten  thou- 
sand engines  for  centuries  have  played  their  dirty 
streams  upon  the  relation  of  the  sexes,  and  in- 
stead of  consecrating  its  purity  seem  rather  to 
have  covered  it  with  filth. 

We  find  another  opinion  of  Milman  which  we 
quote  with  more  satisfaction.  In  referring  to 
what  he  calls  "the  poetical  and  imaginative  in- 
cidents of  the  birth  of  Christ,''  he  very  justly 
ascribes  to  them  a  vast  influence  over  the  thouo^hts 
and  affections  of  mankind.  "  This  language  of 
poetic  incident,  and,  if  I  may  so  speak,  of  imag- 
ery, interwoven  as  it  was  with  the  popular  belief, 
infused  into  the  hymns,  the  services,  the  cere- 
monial of  the  Church,  introduced  in  material 
representation  by  painting  and  scul2:)ture,  has 
become  the  vernacular  tongue  of  Christendom, 
universally  intelligible,  and  responded  to  by  the 
human  heart  throughout  these  many  centuries." 

No  doubt  this  is  true  ;  and  we  may  well  be 
thankful  for  it ;  and  b6  glad  that  this  language  of 


200  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

poetic  imagery  is  long  to  hold  its  inflvience  over 
the  human  heart.  It  will  be  an  influence  all  the 
greater  when  we  see  it  as  the  language  of  poetry, 
and  no  strange  questioning  of  what  it  means,  and 
dim  shadows  of  prodigious  and  incredible  things, 
shall  perplex  and  darken  the  mind. 

So  also  in  our  arguments  with  unbelievers  what 
a  help  it  will  be  to  shut  off  all  objections  natu- 
rally and  inevitably  arising  from  the  misinterpre- 
tation of  the  records  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  and 
to  feel  no  longer  bound  to  defend  the  traditions 
which  originated  hundreds  of  years  after  that 
event.  We  shall  not  then  think  of  proving 
Christ's  divinity  by  such  arguments  as  the  vir- 
ginity of  Mary  and  the  continence  of  Joseph. 

Moreover,  what  a  satisfaction  it  will  be  to 
know  that  we  can  trace  the  footsteps  of  our  re- 
ligious faith  quite  back  to  the  simplicity  of  the 
first  preachers  of  the  Gospel.  Nothing  is  clearer 
than  that  much  of  our  theological  diction  origin- 
ated in  those  muddled  politico-dialectic  disputes 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  Lano;uaa'e  is 
a  record  which  nothing  can  falsify.  Two  thou- 
sand years  hence  an  historian,  meeting  in  old 
books  the  first  words  about  railroads,  will  know 
that  those  expressions  originated  in  the  first  haK 


CONCLUSION.  201 

of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  were  entirel}'  un- 
known before.  With  a  like  certainty  we  know 
where  much  of  our  reh'gious  terminology  came 
from,  and  are  sure  it  does  not  come  from  the 
Gospels,  nor  from  the  writings  of  the  apostles. 

No  one  who  has  read  Macaulay's  review  of 
Ranke's  "  History  of  the  Popes  "  will  forget  the 
few  striking  paragraphs  which  show  that  in  Eu- 
rope Protestantism  has  made  no  geographical  ad- 
vances since  the  first  impulse  of  the  Reformation, 
while  Catholicism  has  regained  some  of  the  ground 
it  then  lost.  With  equal  truth  it  ma}^  be  said  that 
theology  has  made  hardly  any  progress  since  the 
first  fresh  days  of  the  Reformers,  while  many  of 
the  dogmas  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  have 
been  more  strongly  intrenched  in  the  very  bosom 
of  Protestantism.  We  have  continued  to  drink 
the  water  of  life,  not  as  it  flowed  direct  from  the 
Divine  fountain  which  God  opened  for  our  heal- 
ing, but  as  it  has  trickled  through  turbid  papal 
channels.  Perhaps  it  will  one  day  be  seen  that 
in  order  to  get  into  the  tiaie  current  of  apostol- 
ical descent,  we  must  go  back  to  a  time  before  a 
corrupt  side-stream  from  Egypt,  by  fraud  and 
violence,  flooded  the  Church  of  Christ.^ 

^  "  It  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  strange  event  that,  at  a  time 


202  THE    BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

In  looking  back  to  the  epoch  which  succeeded 
that  of  the  apostles,  it  is  only  too  evident  that  it 
was  marked  by  a  constant  degeneracy  both  in  in- 
telligence and  spirituality.  The  lofty  mind  and 
the  great  soul  of  Jesus  lifted  up  all  who  had  per- 
sonally known  him.  His  inspiring  influence  to  a 
large  degree  survived  through  a  few  following  gen- 
erations. But  with  the  lapse  of  time  it  was  much 
weakened.  This  is  the  general  effect  of  the  with- 
drawal of  a  great  mental  and  spiritual  guide.  The 
reaction  is  usually  proportioned  to  his  superiority. 

When,  then,  Ave  come  down  to  the  fourth  cent- 
ury, and  the  immediately  subsequent  centuries, 
the  men  we  meet  in  history  are  widely  different 
from  Paul,  and  Peter,  and  John.  Indeed,  what 
a  contrast !  Petty  questions,  petty  subtleties, 
petty  superstitions,  petty  strifes,  are  now  the 
rage.  Who  can  imagine  the  apostles  going  forth 
on  their  missionary  journeys  as  carrying  with 
them  a  splinter  of  the  true  cross,  a  thorn  from 

wlien  most  believers  could  not  read,  tradition  should  acquire  an 
authoritv  above  the  real  record  of  the  Gospel ;  and  of  tradition  it 
has  Iieen  justly  said  that  it  is  like  the  parasite  plant  -which  at 
first  clings  to  and  rests  on  the  tree,  which  it  gradually  over- 
spreads with  its  own  folinge,  till  little  by  little  it  weakens  and 
completely  smothers  it."  Whately's  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  Phil- 
adelphia edit.,  p.  53. 


CONCLUSION.  *  203 

the  bloody  crown,  a  thread  from  the  seamless 
garment,  a  paring  from  one  of  the  finger-nails  on 
the  pierced  hands  ?  When  men  had  lost  an  abil- 
ity to  comprehend  the  real  significance  of  what 
Jesus  had  taught,  these  supei'stitious  and  per- 
haps counterfeit  relics  became  everything. 

At  that  time,  too,  a  syllable  more  or  less  woidd 
kindle  fury,  and  make  multitudes  fly  to  arms. 
On  an  insignificant  question  about  a  formula,  ex- 
communication and  banishment  were  suspended. 
There  was  a  I'ace  of  narrow  minds  and  hard 
hearts.  The  tide  of  Christian  intelligence  and 
Christian  virtue  hai'dly  ever  ebbed  lower  than 
with  them.  Yet  they  gave  a  shape  to  the  Gospel 
which  not  only  the  Catholic  but  the  Protestant 
world  has  acce])ted  as  its  clearest  and  final  word. 
If  human  authority  be  needed  to  interpret  and 
verify  Christianity,  how  astounding  that  we  should 
look  for  it  among  the  ambitious  and  corrupt  pet- 
tifoggers of  the  epoch  referred  to. 

The  times  in  whicli  we  live  seem  favorable  in 
one  respect  for  important  reforms  in  theology. 
It  would  be  absurd  to  found  many  hopes  on  any 
one  sect,  for  none  has  a  monopoly  of  this  work. 
The  best  encouragement  is  in  the  large  number 
of    generous-minded    and    scholarly    men    of    all 


204  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

denominations  who  feel  uneasy  under  sectarian 
restraints,  and  long  to  see  eye  to  eye  those  with 
whom  they  know  they  have  a  spiritual  alliance. 
Probably  there  has  never  been  a  day  when  this 
number  was  larger  than  now. 

Still  the  bondage  of  sect  is  wide-spread,  and 
often  overwhelming.  One  might  be  surprised  to 
count  up  the  number  and  power  of  material  inter- 
ests that  ai^e  pledged  to  some  old  creed.  Funds, 
churches,  periodicals,  theological  schools,  count- 
less religious  and  social  organizations,  partisan 
leadership,  hopes  of  advancement,  means  of  daily 
bread  —  all  are  at  stake,  in  numberless  cases, 
upon  the  retention  of  certain  formulas  of  faith. 
The  sermons,  the  habits  of  thought,  the  exhorta- 
tions, the  gestures,  the  roll  of  the  eye,  the  shake 
of  the  head,  of  thousands  of  preachers  are  ad- 
justed to  a  certain  belief ;  and  to  overthrow  that 
is  to  take  away  their  stock  in  trade.  Theological 
schools  seem  to  answer  the  end  of  camp-life  to 
raw  soldiers,  that  is,  to  break  down  the  will  of 
many  to  the  command  of  a  few ;  and  so  it  is  that 
we  go  on  repeating  from  generation  to  generation 
the  same  old  rattling  and  hollow  forms,  and  all 
improvement  in  tlieology  has  a  hard  fight  against 
these  resistincT  forces. 


CONCLUSION.  205 

It  would  denote  extreme  verdancy  to  svippose 
that  any  churches  are  now  formed  to  encourage 
higher  conceptions  of  truth.  Who  does  not 
know  that  their  corporate  strength  is  always 
given  to  the  defense  or  diffusion  of  a  precon- 
ceived creed?  Hence  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby  said, 
"  In  the  great  end  of  a  church  all  churches  are 
now  greatly  deficient.  The  life  of  these  societies 
has  long  been  gone.  They  do  not  help  the 
individual  in  holiness.  This  in  itseK  is  evil 
enough ;  but  it  is  monstrous  that  they  sliould 
pretend  to  fetter  where  they  do  not  assist."  ^ 

It  will  not  be  strange  if  it  should  be  said  by 
some  that  it  is  the  design  of  this  book  to  lower 
our  idea  of  Jesus,  and  to  reduce  him  to  the 
measure  of  our  humanity.  We  feel  sure  that  no 
one  who  reads  this  work  would  willingly  bear 
false  witness.  Our  design  is  very  far  from  that 
here  named.  We  think  that  we  have  the  highest 
^idea  of  his  person.  In  his  life  we  recognize  the 
advent  of  a  new  spirit,  a  new  power,  into  the 
world,  coming  direct  from  God.  Yet  we  believe 
it  works  in  an  organic  connection  with  the  natr 
ural,  so  that  while  the  chain  of  cause  and  effect 
is  not  broken,  a  higher  influence  mingles  in  the 
1  Life,  of  Dr.  Arnold,  vol.  ii.,  p.  57. 


206  THE   BIRTH    OF  JESUS. 

links  of  that  chain,  and  operates  in  the  circle  of 
human  instrumentality.  And  we  hold  to  this 
view,  and  commend  it  to  others,  because  it  seems 
to  bring  ns  nearer  to  our  Divine  Teacher  and 
Guide. 

If  we  look  to  other  branches  of  inquiry,  how 
plainly  we  see  the  need  of  fresh,  independent  in- 
vestigation to  emancipate  us  from  long  inherited 
errors.  The  other  day,  as  we  were  turning  over 
the  leaves  of  a  book  relating  to  the  history  of  med- 
ical opinions,  we  were  astonished  at  the  ground- 
less theories,  the  puerile  absurdities,  the  supersti- 
tious nostrums,  that  had  long  been  handed  down 
from  the  dark  ages,  and  implicitly  adopted,  gen- 
eration after  generation,  as  the  substance  of  ther- 
apeutic science.  This  enormous  mass  of  error 
has  almost  tempted  some  eminent  medical  writers 
to  wish  that  all  traditional  maxims  and  remedies 
could  be  annihilated,  so  that  there  might  be  a 
fresh  study  of  each  case. 

This  is  the  fact  where  the  point  to  be  inves- 
tigated touches  our  external  senses,  and  requires 
for  its  successful  prosecution  only  good  eyes, 
good  ears,  and  unbiased,  trained  habits  of  care- 
ful discrimination.  How  incredible,  then,  to 
suppose  there  have  been  no  inherited  errors    in 


CONCLUSION.  207 

a  sphere  of  thought  above  our  external  senses, 
in  the  science  of  theology,  in  dogmas  framed  in 
times  of  gross  ignorance,  and  transmitted  from 
father  to  son  unaltered  for  ten  or  fifteen  cent- 
uries. 

A  spirit  of  investigation,  which  has  recon- 
structed all  other  branches  of  knowledge,  will 
some  time  break  up  the  petrified  crusts  of  the- 
ology. A  silent  change  is  even  now  going  on, 
far  more  deep  and  fundamental  than  the  great 
revolution  which  we  call  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion, and  which,  if  it  were  allied,  as  then,  to 
questions  of  dynasties  and  state  interests,  would 
produce  even  greater  convulsions.  Thinking  men 
everywhere  see  that  there  must  be  a  readjust- 
ment of  our  ideas  of  God,  of  Christ,  of  the 
Bible,  in  order  to  bring  them  into  truer  relations 
with  the  advancement  of  the  a^e. 

We  have  failed  altogether  in  the  object  kept 
in  view  in  this  book  if  the  mind  of  the  reader 
be  not  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  wrong 
which  the  ages  have  inflicted  upon  Jesus.  Of 
course  they  have  sought  to  honor  him,  but  it 
was  been  in  a  way  which  he  would  have  for- 
bidden. High  sounding  titles  have  shut  him  out 
of  the  sphere  of  human  sympathies.     His  mur- 


208  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

derers  mockingly  said,  "  Hail,  King  of  the  Jews  !  " 
in  after  times  his  friends  sincerely  applied  to  hini 
like  inflated  epithets ;  but  the  effect  was  in  both 
cases  the  same  —  to  alienate  from  him  human 
affections. 

And  to  whom  were  these  estranging  phrases 
applied?  It  was  to  him  who  loved  man  most 
tenderly,  who  came  closer  to  the  human  heart 
than  any  other  soul  known  on  earth,  whose 
chosen  title  was  Son  of  Man,  who  declared  that 
the  humblest  child  who  did  the  will  of  God  was 
his  mother  and  sister  and  brother.  Such  was  he 
who  has  been  lifted  up  on  a  pedestal  above  our 
clear  vision,  has  been  surrounded  by  mists  and 
clouds,  and  has  been  made  the  object  of  a  con- 
ventional adulation  instead  of  a  natural  love. 

If  we  have  any  right  sympathy  with  the  mind 
of  Jesus,  we  must  see  that  he  would  have  infi- 
nitely preferred  that  love.  The  world  has  de- 
frauded him.  We  have  defrauded  ourselves,  also, 
of  a  mighty  aid.  Fellowship  with  such  a  lofty 
human  soul  is  one  of  the  most  quickening  helps 
to  draw  us  up  to  his  transcendent  height. 

No  doubt  for  the  humanity  of  Jesus  the  early 
Christians  had  a  sympathy  which,  with  those 
who  succeeded  them,  was  weakened  and  nearly 


CONCLUSION.  209 

lost.  To  be  convinced  of  this  we  have  only 
to  mark  the  way  in  which  the  first  disciples 
spoke  of  him.  Whom  did  St.  Peter  preach  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost  ?  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a 
man  approved  of  God."  Acts  ii.  22.  Whom 
did  St.  Paul  declare  to  he  the  one  Mediator  be- 
tween God  and  man  ?  "  The  man  Christ  Jesus." 
1  Timothy  ii.  5.  Whom  did  St.  Paul  say  God 
had  sent  into  the  world?  "His  son,  made  of  a 
woman."  Galatians  iv.  4.  By  whom  came,  ac- 
cording to  St.  Paul,  the  sure  hope  of  a  future 
life  ?  "  By  man  came  the  resurrection  from  the 
dead."  1  Corinthians  xv.  21.  In  his  memorable 
speech  at  Athens,  whom  did  St.  Paul  announce 
as  assisting  at  the  judgment  of  the  last  day  ? 
"  God  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness  by 
that  man  whom  he  hath  ordained."  Acts  xvii. 
31.  In  his  sermon  at  Antioch  of  Pisidia  St.  Paul 
preached  the  forgiveness  of  sins ;  but  through 
whom  ?  "  Be  it  known  unto  you,  men  and  breth- 
ren, that  through  this  man  is  preached  forgive- 
ness of  sins."  Acts  xiii.  38.  And,  finally,  when 
the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  set  forth 
the  true  and  acceptable  offering,  in  what  terms 
did  he   allude  to  Jesus?     "This  man,  after  he 

14 


210  THE   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

had  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins,  forever  sat  down 
on  tlie  right  hand  of  God."     Hebrews  x.  12. 

Thus  it  was  the  manhood  of  Jesus  to  which 
constant  reference  was  made  —  a  humanity  with 
which  they  could  sympathize,  while  they  rejoiced 
that  our  human  nature  was  made  the  vehicle  of 
God's  grace,  and  was  the  antetype  and  prophecy 
of  Avhat  man,  in  some  future  age,  was  to  be- 
come. 

But  this  style  of  speaking  of  Jesus  soon  ceased. 
We  find  nothing  like  it  in  all  the  literature  that 
succeeded  apostolic  times.  Then  came  the  exe- 
gesis, still  in  vogue,  of  two  natures,  between 
whicli,  it  was  supposed,  Jesus  and  his  apostles 
prevaricated.  Men's  hearts  were  thus  turned 
away  from  an  earnest  love  of  a  brother  to  empty 
boasts  of  a  demi-god.  What  a  confirmation  is 
here  of  the  leading  view  of  this  book ! 

On  all  sides  Ave  liear  complaints  of  prevailing 
indifference  to  the  great  themes  which  in  other 
times  have  most  profoundly  moved  the  human 
mind.  Is  no  part  of  this  indifference  attribu- 
table to  the  divorce  between  modern  intelligence 
and  an  outgrown  theology?  To  what  length 
may  the  antagonism  extend  ?  Is  not  a  higher 
plane  of  free  and  thorough  criticism  one  of  the 


CONCLUSION.  211 

great  needs  of  our  times  ?  Are  there  not  many 
subjects  which  should  be  brought  before  the  bar 
of  a  criticism  like  that  ?  Is  not  here  the  rem- 
edy for  existing  and  menacing  evils  ?  Aware 
of  many  imperfections  in  the  work  which  we 
here  close,  and  not  doubting  but  that  in  some 
points  we  may  have  made  mistakes,  we  are  yet 
conscious  that  it  has  been  written  in  the  interest 
of  a  true  religion,  —  of  a  profound  reverence  for 
its  verities  and  hopes. 


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